The end of us
by LightningWolfHowl
Summary: X.A.N.A has won. The artificial intelligence now rules earth. Humanity stands on the brink of extinction. The Lyoko warriors are now only a distant memory but among the remaining humans, some of the warriors still struggle to survive in a world ruled by their old arch-nemesis.
1. Prologue

The night that everything changed was remarkably beautiful.

The air was still and silent and despite the hour it was still warm. Few witnessed it however as they were busy sleeping at such an early hour of the morning. The entire city benefited from an unusual quietness which it seldom saw in the daytime. This was the time for sleep in preparation for the day to come.

It was no different in a medium sized house in one of the calmer neighborhoods. The tranquility was abruptly shattered as the phone rang. It took a good minute for anyone to even remotely stir but the caller was persistent. Eventually, a young woman staggered her way out into the corridor, still half asleep. She found her phone, which she had left to charge in the living room. Yawning, she answered it without thinking to check who was calling.

"Yes?" She asked exhausted "Jeremy? What the hell are you doing calling? It's-" She glanced up at a clock on the wall "Half three! I've got work tomorrow!"

She listened to the panic stricken voice on the other end. It was amazing how quickly such a tone woke her up. Her tiredness and initial annoyance at being given the call disappeared in a matter of milliseconds. Suddenly wide awake, she rushed back into her room, with the phone still pressed against her ear listening to her old friend. She opened the blinds slightly and looked out of the window; a strange glow now occupied the horizon.

Now, also in full blown panic mode she headed back to her bed and shook its remaining occupant who was still sleeping deeply, seemingly unaware of what was unfolding around him. He groaned a couple of times unhappy at being awoken so roughly. He finally opened his eyes, still not quite aware of what was happening.

"Ulrich! Ulrich! Wake up!" She shook him roughly "Oh God! Kai!"  
"Huh?"

The young man got out of bed still not quite aware of what was going on. He gave her a confused glance as she rushed out of the room. He really was the least of her concerns at that moment though. She had woken him that was all that mattered right now where he was concerned. If the voice on the phone was to be trusted, he would know soon enough what was going on anyway. What was important right now was to get a head start.

She rushed into a small room and flicked the switch turning on the lights. Her eyes instinctively softened ever-so slightly as they fell upon the still slumbering child. Kneeling down by the side of the bed, she gently placed a hand on the child's shoulder. It didn't take much to wake him; doubtlessly the commotion had already done that for her. His dark eyes looked up at her obviously baffled at what was going on. He rubbed his eyes trying to get them accustomed to the sudden brightness of his bedroom.

"Mom? What's going on?" He asked her still half asleep  
"No time to explain Kai!"  
She picked up the child in one arm whilst succeeding in keeping the phone pressed against her ear. Jeremy was still talking. Yelling more like, he was screaming instructions but almost all of them could be summed up by the word _run_. She bumped into Ulrich as he in turn tore out of the room. Acting quickly, she passed him Kai. It was clear that the young child was becoming increasingly terrified as he gripped onto his father for protection.

She rushed over to the closet and grabbed her shoes and those of the rest of her family. It was going to be the only luxury they could afford as well as being a necessity if any walking was to be involved. The father and son put their shoes on without asking complaining or even questioning both of them could sense that whatever was going on was far too serious for them to have any time to waste.

"Hey what's up with the sky?" The young man asked looking out of the window "It can't be sunrise already."  
"Jeremy! It's started!" The woman informed him fear creeping into her voice  
"Yumi, you're less than a mile away!" Jeremy yelled at them. "You're going to be the most immediate targets! Get out of there now!"


	2. Chapter 1

One liter of water weighed about a kilogram.

It was incredible the amount of information which his brain stored and that most people would have considered useless, yet he knew it not to be. For instance, with that bit of knowledge, he could say that the bucket of water he was currently carrying weighed approximately 7kg. It was probably going to be closer to 6 and a half by the time he got it to where it needed to be, as he had been unable to fill it up to brim and he was likely to spill some whilst transporting it.

He contemplated the water in the stream. Of course, having such an immense amount of knowledge also meant that he knew how risky drinking this water was. Sure, they were close-ish to the source here but that didn't prevent it from potentially containing bacteria or some other unpleasant micro-organism. Oh, how he longed for the time when he didn't know where their food or water came from; it prevented him from worrying about it.

He turned to look at his companions, the one nearest to him was a young girl she had already filled two buckets and was carrying one in each hand. A little older than him, she was a grand total of two inches taller, her short pink hair came down to her neck. Her blue eyes turned to look at him and offered him a faint smile.

"Sure I can't help you there Chip?" She asked him seeing how difficult he seemed to be finding it to carry the bucket  
"No! I'm fine." He muttered trying to mask his struggling

He was smaller than his sister. Life had gifted him with great brains but sadly not much in the way of physical strength. Of course, he was still young. He hadn't even celebrated his twelfth birthday yet and was being asked to carry around ridiculous weights. It didn't seem to bother his sister however who could easily manage a bucket in each hand. He let out a sigh, running a hand through his longish blonde hair before deciding to risk pulling a muscle and picked up the bucket.

"Come on guys." An older voice told them "This is yellow territory; we do not want to be caught out here with our pants down."  
"Right." Chip agreed beginning to walk.

The two pre-teens followed their older friend. Friend maybe didn't quite qualify here but it was as close a word to describe their relationship as Chip could think of.

The older teen was 15 years old since last month. He had neck length shaggy dark hair and vaguely Asian features. He was already tall, he was now only a few inches smaller than Chip's mother. He had been doing this heavy work for longer than them as such possessed a strong lean build. He could have easily powered ahead of them but chose not to for reasons only known by himself; probably some sort of care. His dark eyes made sure that neither of the two kids fell behind.

Chip wouldn't have minded being as strong as him; using a carrying pole he succeeded in carrying two much larger 10L buckets up the hill. Even being as strong as his sister and carrying two smaller buckets would have been nice. Instead he struggled to carry just one which wasn't even completely full. He had been gifted with brains not brawn and at times like this; it was the latter which was more important.

That wasn't to say that his sister or their older friend were stupid strongmen; far from that. Marie was very bright, more than was typical for a thirteen year old. She could solve complicated algorithms in half the time it would have taken a capable adult. Although he was nothing special in that respect, the older teen was clever although perhaps not in such an obvious way. He's intelligence lay more in his knowledge of this forest and how to survive. If you needed help with math, science or computer theory you asked Chip or his sister; if you wanted to survive in the wilds then you needed the dark haired teen or his father.

Chip stumbled almost spilling the water from his bucket. He only just managed to catch himself. Pausing for a moment, he took the chance to take a couple of deep breaths. Looking up, he contemplated the steep hill ahead of him. Why? Oh, why did they have to live so high up? He knew of course, they needed the shelter of the caves up there. Still, it didn't make the water trips any easier.

"That's too heavy for you isn't it Chris?" The older teen asked looking back  
"I'm fine." He declared struggling to carry it a few inches further  
"Fine… Yeah. That about covers it." Marie cast a skeptical glance over her little brother  
"I'm telling you I can handle it."  
"Instead of saying you can handle it when you obviously can't, let someone else do it who can."

Chip felt a slight chill down his spine as he noticed the imposing figure behind him. Timidly, he turned around and looked up into the brown eyes of the man standing behind him. His stern expression told the boy that he wasn't in the mood to joke; then again, anyone who knew him also knew that he never wore a smile. He was a tall man with a lean build and neck long brown hair. He had a little bit of stubble around his chin, which he apparently hadn't been able to shave off in a few days.

Bending down, he picked up the young boy's bucket and added it to his pole. Despite his intellect, Chip didn't know just how he managed to carry that much water in buckets using his pole without spilling it. He powered ahead of the teens without saying another word. The trip back up the hill certainly was a lot easier without having to carry the buckets but he would happily have passed on the guilt factor. He felt bad not helping as he watched his friends carry buckets and playing a part…

They reached the top of the hill two minutes later. The man was waiting for them. They put their buckets down and took a couple of deep breaths under his watchful gaze. With the exception of the Asian boy who kept his distance from them, who preferred to look out over the forest and the mountains it covered. There was snow at the top of a lot of them that never melted. It would have been considered beautiful were it not for the dangerously cold temperatures during winter.

After the kids had caught their breath, they carried their load of water a little further. Slowly, a small encampment came into view.

It was primitive in every sense. The huts - or what passed for them - were made out of odd pieces of wood and looked as if they might fall down at the slightest gust of wind. They were humid and in some places the wood was rotting through. The recent rains had caused the path the turn to mood. A fire burnt in the center of the small encampment, over which roasted several animals. Not farm animals though, they were a luxury that they hadn't known in quite some time, no these were forest creatures which had been slayed and now would act as some form of limited nourishment.

They passed several groups of people, all busy doing one thing or another. Some were busy trying to sow together bits of fabric, they were all too aware of the harsh winter coming. Others tried desperately to repair their shelters, whilst some carried large piles of branches and sticks which they would use to burn. Few tended to the injured or sick. Nobody did nothing; that was a rule here no matter how young you were, everybody contributed to surviving.

Right now, he knew that there were patrols surrounding their camp and guarding them. There were groups of hunters and foragers running through the forest desperately trying to find the next meal. The only time things ever slowed down was at night, even then; the guards took turns in keeping watch.

They dumped the water in a large silo near the fire to ensure that it didn't freeze over during the night. Each bucket was passed to the men with shaggy hair who emptied it in. A woman with pink hair and green eyes took note of the volume, it was almost full. She turned to look at them with a wide and kind smile.

"That's great you guys!" She declared "One more load ought to do it."  
"Christopher can't keep up yet." The man declared looking down at the blonde child "We need to find him something else to do."  
"Well, work's not something we're short of here." She replied still not losing her smile  
"How about you Marie? Can you keep up?" The tall man asked  
"Yes, one more shouldn't be a problem." She assured him  
"Good. Now, I want my daughter back. Kai, you keep an eye on her."  
"Okay Aelita." The tall teenager agreed earning a glare from Marie  
"I'll find something for Chip to do." She promised

The man nodded before picking his buckets back up and slinging his pole over his shoulder. He headed off with his two accompaniers in toe. Chip turned to look at his mother slightly ashamed that he had been unable to help more. He knew that she had better things to do than look after him, especially when winter was so close. Still, she gave him a warm smile and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Let's see if we can find you a job to do."

She eventually found one which involved preparing the meat from various animals for the meal. There was zero waste: feathers could be used for pillows or isolation, fur could become potentially frostbite preventing gloves, the insides were always good for a soup, even bones could be turned into arrowheads or something else potentially useful. Waste had become an unknown word for the inhabitants here. They simply couldn't afford to turn their noses up at the food anymore.

Chip spent a good two hours plucking and gutting. It was far from a pleasant job but it was one he had become accustomed to since he had become old enough to be reasonably asked to work. At least, he was of some use he told himself. If Kai and Marie helped and participated then he had to as well. He let out a deep sigh, carrying a small rabbit over to Maria; Maria was one of two Italians at the camp, a warm bubbly person who always saw the lighter side of things, she was one of his mother's best friends, even if her French was a little shaky.

He found his mother along with his sister and Kai later that evening. They were waiting patiently for him along with the tall man with brown hair. The sun was dimming which meant it was nearing time for bed. An hour before sunset was dinner time, everyone lined up ready to get their share of whatever was on the menu. Usually it was a bit of a pushing and shoving frenzy as everyone rushed to the front hoping somehow to get more or better food. In practice, it made little difference.

"Come on Chip, we've got to get in line." Marie told him joining the queue  
"You shouldn't wait for me." He muttered quietly "If you're at the back, the food's cold."  
"If we didn't wait for you; you'd be at the back and you know they don't save any." The man told him  
"Besides, we couldn't have our meal without a chip now could we?" Aelita laughed ruffling her son's hair "We need at least some carbohydrates."  
"I _really_ wouldn't bet on that tonight Aelita." Kai told him  
"What? No five course buffet? Kai, you're getting lazier by the day."  
"I shot down three pigeons this morning!" The teen declared proudly "Not that I imagine there's much of them left by now."  
"What did you pigeons do to you anyhow?" Marie asked him  
"They looked tasty…" He replied with a toothy grin.

That night's meal didn't amount to much. It seldom did. I was always the same; tough, old boot meat from something which somebody had managed to shoot down with an arrow. Usually, there would be some vegetables of some kind; those that they grew rarely sufficed to feed everyone so wild ones were often added. They were allowed each one potato which they grew and stored in limited numbers. It went without saying that their meals were hardly nutritious.

They carried their meals back to the little cabin which they called home. It was cramped with five of them living there at the same time. As they entered it, the man reached up and lit a small lantern before closing the door. They ate sitting down and using old, mismatched pieces of cutlery. Twenty years ago, they would have refused to eat it; now they didn't even contemplate chucking it out. Food was vital for survival; they couldn't afford to waste any of it.

"You know, if you try really hard, this actually tastes like a burger." Kai declared looking at a piece of slightly burnt meat on the end of his fork.  
"Really?" Marie who had already finished asked  
"Yeah…" Kai replied.

Aelita sighed; she knew what he was doing and honestly appreciated it but it didn't make watching her children go hungry any easier. The food they had in their stomachs wasn't nearly enough to fill two growing pre-teens. It was even worse for Kai, although he never let it show. It hurt her to have to see her two kids suffer as they did; from hunger, from the cold, from fear… Still, their bravery never ceased to amaze her.

There was a few moments pause. She noticed Kai reaching forwards with his plate, ready to give the rest of his meal to his younger friends. Aelita raised a hand stopping him. He needed the food if he was going to keep on growing and stay healthy. She however could perhaps afford a little more to donate some of her food to her children. She said nothing as she gave a portion of her meal to her daughter. She looked over to the side to see that the man had done the same for Chip.

"You kids need to stand up for yourselves." He declared getting to his feet "They're not giving you the right portions."

With that, he got up took their empty plates and glasses and left the hut. Aelita stayed starring at the door for a few moments, deep in thought. He was right of course but then those in charge of handing out the food being mean weren't the only source of their problem. As she was being increasingly reminded, winter was coming and that was never a good thing here. It was cold enough already at their relatively high altitude and it wasn't going to get warmer for a good few months yet…

Shaking her head, she tried to get those depressing thoughts out of her mind. She walked over to a small wooden crate stored in a corner of the room and opened it. Inside, she found an old, tattered book. She smiled and got it out before showing it to her delighted children.

"Who wants a story?"

Half an hour later, the sun had gone down completely. Aelita sat in between her two children, reading _Peter Pan_ to them. The children listened intently to the story. She had been reading it to them for about a week now. They would snuggle together for half an hour every night as she read it to them under the light from their lantern. In his own little corner, Kai read a separate book. Outside, everything was silent as the camp slept.

"I think that's enough for tonight." Aelita told them marking the page and closing the book  
"Aw come on mom…" Chip began to beg  
"No." She said firmly "You need to rest for tomorrow."  
"But just a page more would only take a minute." Marie argued  
"Well, that's a minute more you could be sleeping." The pink haired mother replied getting up, she was quite used to their arguments "We'll continue tomorrow, I promise."

Getting a couple of blankets, she carefully tucked her two children in. They were always tired at this time of night, as was she. Their days just seemed to drain all their strength. She knew that within a few moments of her leaving, they would both be fast asleep. They slept on the floor, propped up slightly by some rags to keep them at least slightly away from the damp. She knelt down next to them and gave them both a kiss on the forehead.

"Goodnight." She whispered before noticing that Chip was already asleep  
"What about me?" Kai asked  
"You've already listened to the story, isn't that enough for you?" She asked him raising an eyebrow  
"I was reading my book." He replied showing it to her  
"Don't pretend. I can see that you're still on page 152!" She told him laughing slightly  
"Okay fine. I eavesdrop!" He admitted before noticing that she was about to leave the cabin "You're going after him again?"  
"Someone's got to keep an eye on him." She muttered grimly "Can you keep an eye on them for me?"  
"I won't let them out of my sight." He promised before yawning "Until I fall asleep that is…"  
"Goodnight Kai." She replied after a slight chuckle  
"Goodnight…"

With that Aelita left the hut. Outside was now completely black. There were no lights or fires lit after the sun had set, not outside, they would give away their position. Of course, that made it virtually impossible to make your way around. She was lucky that tonight there was a moon. Then, again with the possible exception of those on watch duty nobody was out at this time. They all slept, few maintained the strength required to work all day and then to be out late at night. She knew one person however who was an exception to that rule.

Walking over to their stables, she found one of the night watchers. It was a middle aged woman called Amandine. Everyone knew everyone else at the camp, considering that there was only about fifty of them it wasn't a difficult achievement. Amandine gave her a tired smile as she saw her approaching.

"Going after him again?" She asked  
"Yes." Aelita replied glancing around "Someone has to."  
"I guess." The guard replied letting out a sigh

Aelita headed into a larger hut and contemplated the horses within it. They owned a grand total of eight horses, in the day they grazed on the grass on the hill and at night they were brought here to ensure they weren't attacked by predators. They had managed to gather bridles and saddles for all of them. They were used as a quick method for getting around but last year a couple had been eaten when things got seriously rough.

She only counted seven; it figured that he would have taken one… He always did. Picking up a saddle and bridle, Aelita prepared a gray mare which she suspected would have been happier sleeping. She had learnt amazingly quickly how to ride and prepare a horse. With her horse ready, she went outside and got into the saddle. Amandine gave her a concerned look before eventually letting out.

"He's a broken man. You should know that more than most."  
"I know…"

With that she spurred her horse on to go and catch up with her old friend.


	3. Chapter 2

_"__Step on it Ulrich!" Yumi cried loudly holding her son  
"How could this happen?! How?!" He asked her speeding up the car  
"I don't know and neither does Jeremy for that matter." She replied looking out the back of the car to the burning city behind them  
"I hope Einstein can come up with something quickly!" He replied keeping his eyes firmly in front of him  
"Don't you get it Ulrich? It's too late for that. People are dead now, the center of Paris is swarming with monsters…" Yumi marked a brief pause as the earth shook slightly "Even if we could somehow reach the factory, it wouldn't undo everything that's happened."  
"I- I don't believe that…" He replied gritting his teeth "There's got to be a way!"  
"Mommy, I'm scared."_

_Yumi lowered her eyes to the shaking child on her lap. She ran a hand through his dark hair and softly hushed him. It somehow magically provided a little comfort to the child, who decided to close his eyes and try and block off everything that was happening._

_Now, as people figured out that something was very wrong, they poured out of their houses and into the streets desperately trying to get to their cars. They had the advantage of already being on the road of course and Ulrich wasn't planning on stopping for anybody. Every now and then he would have to swerve out in order to avoid somebody who wasn't looking whilst pulling out. Behind them, there had already been one accident where two motorists had collided. He suspected there would only be so much further that they could go, before they would get bogged down and have to make their way on foot._

_"Ulrich! In front of you!"_

_He had just enough to time to slam on the brakes, bringing the car to an abrupt halt. People had started running in the opposite direction as fast as their legs would carry them. Down the street, marching in lines came a group of ten kankrelats, followed by a krab. The lyoko warriors starred wide eyed. Somehow, Jeremy's warning hadn't really seemed real until they saw the creatures make their way down the street towards them._

_Poleaxed for a few moments, Ulrich finally managed to pull himself together. He yelled loudly to his family :_

_"Yumi! Take Kai and get out of the car!" _

"Ulrich?"

It was a strangely soft voice which awoke him from his dreams. He turned to see Aelita Belpois standing only a few feet away. Her horse grazed on the grass near to his own. He said nothing, acknowledging her presence only with a nod. It was a nice night in the sense that all of the stars were out as was the moon but the lack of cloud cover caused the temperature to drop considerably. He could see that some frost was beginning to form on the ground. This was going to be a hard winter without a doubt.

"You're really pushing it." She gestured at the red paint on the rock he was currently sitting on  
"Its fine." He replied  
"Really? So that isn't the red zone over there?" She pointed out to the town in the distance "And we're not sitting in the amber zone?"  
"It is but what I meant was I won't let X.A.N.A spot me." The samurai replied looking to the sky  
"How are you going to do that when you're sleeping?" Her tone reminded him of that of a mother with a misbehaving and unreasonable child  
"Who says I was sleeping?"  
"Oh yeah sure… You just had your eyes shut and were slumping over randomly."

Ulrich let out a frustrated sigh. Aelita smiled slightly and took that as her cue to sit down next to him. Tonight, she had made sure to bring him a blanket, well it was closer to a cloak actually but it would keep him warm. In that respect, he never had matured; he still insisted on leaving at the same time and not bothering to tell anybody else, which meant that he couldn't ask those in charge of supplies for extra clothing to keep him warm. This had become something of a routine for them.

He would come out here and think about life, or at least that what he'd say. In practice, she knew he was thinking about the past; the same incident again and again. He would roll it over in his mind. It was a poison which was destroying him every single night and he was allowing it to do so. She was helpless where her old friend was concerned, all she could do was come out here and keep him company.

"Your son is an impossible flirt." She eventually told him trying to lighten the mood  
"Well, he didn't get it from me!" Ulrich replied blankly  
"I never said he did." Aelita defended herself chuckling at her friend's reaction "It's a shame that there are no kids of his age."  
"If there were any more kids here, Michel would have Chip and Marie sent off for sure."  
"Kai too." Aelita informed him, noticing the look of surprise on the father's face "He stands up for them." She explained "Since he's your son, I guess Michel sees him as a way to get to you…"  
"What did I ever do to him?" Ulrich asked dryly  
"Oh, I dunno… Drew a sword on him the last time he asked us both to tell him who we are."

The Lyoko warrior didn't reply to her statement. Of course, he knew that. Their relationship with the leader of the camp was strained to say the least. On one side it was very clear that he despised them for refusing to tell him just how they knew so much about X.A.N.A and his monsters but he couldn't afford to get rid of either of them. It lead to an uneasy truce between them, Aelita could understand his position but there were some very good reasons for them not divulging their identities. She tried to shake the thoughts of their little group falling apart out of her mind; surely there was something slightly more optimistic to talk about…

Ulrich's chosen spot for reflecting about life as a general was beautiful. It was at the top of a hill over-looking a valley. Before X.A.N.A, it must have been a lovely place to live. They were sitting in what remained of a mountain, which long ago had been occupied by terraced farming. A little bit further back and higher up on the mountain was the forest which concealed their home. The town in the valley had once been home to some 15,000 inhabitants. Only two had survived that they knew of.

"There are more of them tonight." Aelita noted looking down into the town  
"You're right and that's never a good thing."  
"You think X.A.N.A's planning an attack?"  
"No." Ulrich shook his head negatively "If he were, he would do it quickly and silently. We wouldn't even see him coming."  
"Well that's reassuring."  
"You know as well as I do that it's the truth."  
"When was the last time you smiled?" Aelita asked him.

There was humor in her voice and she was used to asking the question. She always got the same response: a lack of one. Her old friend hadn't smiled in a long time nor had he laughed. She knew why and she knew as everyone said that he was beyond hope. Yet for some reason, she never gave up trying to bring the old him out and break the prison of ice which seemed to have formed around his heart. Maybe it was because he along with a group of teenagers had never stopped trying to save her or maybe it was because it hurt her to see him ignore his own son.

"You should be sleeping." He declared  
"Has it ever occurred to you that our conversations go round in the same circles every night?"  
"I had noticed yes."  
"So you know that I reply-"  
"I'm not coming back until you come too…" He muttered sounding almost put off  
"There you go then."

Ulrich let out a deep sigh and turned back to look at the town.

Aelita reminded herself that this must bring back at least some form of memory to him. Unlike her, he had been in Paris at the moment of X.A.N.A's rising; in the Ishiyama household as a matter of a fact. It would have been difficult for him to get much closer to the immediate attack area. He had been there when the monsters had stormed through the streets of the city killing everyone that came before them. He and Yumi had been the first Lyoko warriors to be directly attacked and hunted… Yumi…

Aelita raised her eyes to the sky wondering if the twinkling stars somehow held the answer to all their questions. Maybe they knew if humanity truly was doomed…

"How's François?" He asked  
"He's not going to make it." Aelita let out in a massive sigh "His whole right arm's become gangrenous…"  
"If it ever happened to me, I think I'd rather you shot me."  
"I couldn't do that Ulrich." She told him honestly "But some of the others are considering it…"  
"Shooting me?!"  
"No!" She paused a moment before explaining "They're considering killing those deemed beyond medical help. So that we don't use up any more medical supplies on them.  
"We say all that stuff about us being so much better than the machines…" He grumbled "But when it comes down to it, I'm not always convinced…"

Aelita nodded solemnly. They had learnt the hard way that in this world, X.A.N.A wasn't the only threat.

She thought about what her life had become now; hiding in the heights of the mountains and almost freezing to death every winter. Every day, she struggled with the wounded, injured and sick of the camp amongst other things. She watched as her children virtually starved some nights yet managed to keep smiling… If that wasn't enough, she had to witness perhaps her last remaining old friend turn as cold and ruthless as the world around him…

"Do you think that we're the last ones left?" She asked him  
"I don't know. Probably."

It was an honest answer and one which she was increasingly inclined to believe was true. The forces which had lead the two of them to come to this place, one of humanity's last strong holds hadn't been so kind for their friends and loved ones. At best they were unaccounted for, that was the case for 80% of the old Kadic crew and at worse they were dead.

At first, they had hoped that some contact would be established as soon as the country had recovered from the initial shock of the destruction of Paris. As the months had rolled on however, it had become more and more apparent that this wasn't just some X.A.N.A attack that they would be able to counter-act. When the monsters rolled across continents and crossed the oceans and as humanity's armies crumbled, it had become apparent that things were not going to be that easy.

Ulrich had summed it up in words which at the time having only just reunited with him she had found defeatist, now she found them shockingly realistic: _it's not about fighting back anymore, now it's just survival_.

"Let's go back." He eventually decided.

She managed to hold back a relieved sigh, tonight he was being rather reasonable it would seem.


	4. Chapter 3

_"__I just got news from Odd!" Jeremy rushed in looking thrilled with himself  
"What?!" Aelita jumped out of her seat upon hearing the news  
"He's managed to gather some of the others." Jeremy announced showing her the laptop "They're heading to Bordeaux. It sounds like they're planning on creating some kind of resistance."  
"That's great!" She smiled widely "It's about time we had some good news!"  
"Yeah!" Her husband agreed with her "Odd says that he's met up with William and Sissi, as well as some others from Kadic!"  
"From Kadic?" Aelita repeated a little surprised "But how?"  
"Considering all the weird stuff that happened whilst we were pupils there, I think we proved that students at Kadic academy are rather hard to kill."_

_Aelita hadn't felt quite so much joy in a long time. It had been three months since X.A.N.A had attacked in force. Already, things had been looking very bleak; Paris had fallen within a day. Then the monsters had just poured out; like a tidal wave of water after a dam break. There were already rumors that the monsters had crossed the channel using the Chunnel and were in Britain. Luxemburg, Germany and Italy's forces were reputed to have begun falling back from the borders._

_For weeks now, refugees had been fleeing as far away from X.A.N.A as they could get. Jeremy and Aelita however had managed to set up a safe base of operations from where they had been trying to organize some sort of resistance._

_They had been sending all the information they had about X.A.N.A to the world's armies in the hope that it would help them fight the new threat. So far, they hadn't been very successful it had to be said. It seemed like their old enemy could adapt to anything and everything. If humanity destroyed 100 of his monsters, they lost 1000 of their own soldiers at least. Anything run by computers had fallen under X.A.N.A's control, which had led to them having to disarm half their weapons._

_Still, the news that their friends were alive warmed their hearts. The idea, that out there somewhere Odd was still cracking his jokes and having to put up with Sissi, gave them both some hope._

_"What about Yumi and Ulrich?" She asked in a slightly lower voice_

_Jeremy let out a sigh and gently took her hand. She lowered her head slightly in sorrow. She had been expecting such a response. Jeremy was the sort of person who would always let her know if there was good news. The lack of a sudden joyous outburst meant that there was still no news on that front. Considering what had happened in Paris, the fact that they hadn't heard from their two old friends could mean two things: either they were hiding too deep to be able to contact them or they were dead…_

_"There's still no news." Jeremy told her softly "It doesn't mean that they're-… They could be in hiding. X.A.N.A couldn't kill those two when they were thirteen! What are the chances of him getting them now?"  
"You're right…" Aelita left a pause before deciding to change subject "How's the virus going?"  
"__**Very**__ slowly!" Jeremy replied showing her some of the programing "But I'm sure I'll have it cracked in a few weeks!"  
"I'm sure you will…" Aelita replied heading over to a cot where a baby girl slept and gently stroking her hair "Then all this nightmare will be over…"_

Aelita was gently shaken awake by Ulrich. All at once, she saw the concern in his dark brown eyes. She realized that something was seriously wrong: the sun hadn't risen yet.

Outside of their hut were several torches belonging to a group. Aelita raised an eyebrow wondering what was happening. Still groggy, she got to her feet and came over to her friend's side. He was peering out through one of the many cracks in the wall. She joined him; of course she recognized the leader of the camp Michel and his five friends he had brought along as backup. It was also difficult not to miss the guns that they were carrying.

"What does he want?" Aelita asked her friend figuring that he might know  
"I don't know. I way lying awake when I heard some yelling." Ulrich uttered a curse beneath his breath "What the hell does he think he's doing with those torches?! X.A.N.A will spot them for sure!"  
"We'd better go out there."  
"Keep the kids in here…" Ulrich declared placing a hand on his swords "I don't like this."  
"Neither do I."

She turned around; they were all still sleeping very soundly. This commotion was the last thing that they needed right now… Before she had the chance to wake them herself, the loud pounding of a heavy fist against the door did it for her. The children looked around startled and confused; she placed a finger over her lips signaling them to be quiet. They nodded slightly, huddling together for a little more safety. By the door, Ulrich had already drawn part of one of his sabers.

"What is it Michel?" He asked the man on the other side of the door  
"We need to talk Stein! You too Stones!" Came the voice from outside  
"What about?" Aelita asked  
"We just received a message from X.A.N.A." Michel replied loudly  
"What do you mean you received a message?!" Ulrich asked him "That's impossible!"

He was right. In a desperate attempt to protect themselves, they had banished all things electronic from the camp. Anything which relied on a current could potentially be used as a weapon by X.A.N.A or at least be used to track down their location. That was the main reason for their primitive living style. It was there for impossible or any message to get through from the supervirus: they had no radio, no computers, no telegram… Nothing. If that wasn't enough X.A.N.A supposedly didn't know of the existence of the camp.

"One of our scouts discovered these leaflets in the forest. It turns out that X.A.N.A's been dumping them everywhere. They're addressed to the entire human race."  
"Why tell us?" Aelita asked before adding in the hope of diffusing the situation "I'm sure you are more than qualified to deal with it. After all, you are in charge."  
"This needs your expertise Maya." Michel replied "It was you and Hans who told us everything we know about X.A.N.A. You're opinions seem pretty much invaluable."

Aelita turned to look at her friend. He nodded solemnly. They didn't have much of a choice here anyway… They were outnumbered and outgunned. A fight here would prove catastrophic for them, especially with the children to take into account as well. Like it or not, they probably had to do what Michel and his buddies said. Ulrich cautiously pushed open the door and went outside. Aelita gave her children one last glance and what she hoped was a comforting smile, in an attempt to try and convince them that all was well.

She stood outside ankle deep in the mud before stretching out her hand to catch one of the white flecks falling from the sky above them.

"Snow…" Ulrich muttered collecting some himself. "Great and it's only November."  
"Come on you two…"

Come on actually meant them being escorted away from the rest of the camp. It was fair to say that they were both popular amongst most of the other inhabitants of the camp. Their popularity was for two very different reasons however: Aelita's warm and friendly personality as well as her medical knowledge made her a difficult person to dislike as well as being an indispensable member of their organization; Ulrich however was a different kettle of fish, although he opened up to nobody save for his old friend, people respected him for his combat strength: it was he who had the record for the most amount of X.A.N.A monster kills.

Aelita suspected that was why they were being led away like this. They wished to avoid creating a scene.

They followed Michel further up the mountain and away from the camp. The snow was already beginning to settle and formed a thin coat of white powder on the ground. As beautiful as it was, winter had lost its charm quite some time ago for the survivors. Now it meant only two things: no food and frostbite. They settled near a rock formation, on a cliff over-looking the valley. It was impossible to make much out in the low darkness ordinarily but tonight with the light from the full moon on the snow covered mountains, everything seemed to have gained a silver hue.

"Okay. What's this about?" All the usual politeness dropped out from Aelita's voice, she didn't like being separated from her children under any circumstance much less uncertain ones.  
"Do you two know a group of kids called the Lyoko warriors?" Michel asked them

Aelita cast a glance over to Ulrich. He face was as ever made out of stone and harbored the same grave expression. It was impossible to guess what he was thinking.

They had never told anyone who they were or who they had been. The Lyoko warriors were a myth, a legend which was whispered around by the survivors. They brought hope of some kind: the idea that humans could face up to the machines and could win… Caution however had prevented both Ulrich and Aelita from ever revealing their identities. As far as the people here were concerned, they were Maya Stones, a young French widowed doctor-in-training with two children and Hans Stein, a german soldier/refugee with his young son.

"We've heard of them." Aelita replied  
"Of course, everyone has! The kids who stood up to X.A.N.A..." Michel mused "And they really were kids. I mean look at this photo, they're what? Thirteen? Fourteen?"

The old Lyoko warriors looked surprised as the leader of the camp handed them a photo. It looked as if it would once have been part of a poster, the bottom of which had been torn off. Now all that remained was a photo which was strangely familiar to them. It was one they had taken some time ago, a very long time ago in fact. It was during the X.A.N.A years, when they fought him on a regular basis and won. Their entire group was there, all smiling, so happy and enjoying life.

Aelita felt her eyes fall upon Jeremy, God… He looked so young standing there in his blue sweater with his large glasses. Ulrich's eyes rested firmly upon the young Japanese girl, standing next to him with an arm around his shoulders. Odd was there of course, with Kiwi. If only those children could have seen who they would become, they might not have liked it…

"There're young alright." Aelita agreed "Where did you get this?"  
"X.A.N.A's been dropping them all day." Michel explained "One of the scouts found it. It's strange, they thought that two of these kids looked a lot like you two."  
"Do they? I wouldn't know." Ulrich replied "The chances are they're dead now anyway."  
"The note came with some names too Jeremy Belpois, Odd Della Robbia, Aelita Scheaffer, Ulrich Stern and Yumi Ishiyama. These kids came from the ends of the earth…"  
"What else did the message say?" Ulrich asked growing suspicious  
"X.A.N.A has promised sanctuary to all those who hand over the Lyoko warriors." Michel announced

Ulrich and Aelita exchanged a somewhat more uncertain glance. Neither were too sure that they liked where this was going. In all the years that X.A.N.A had been active; he had never once contacted or tried to contact the humans. The two Lyoko warriors weren't sure just how safe they were: for starters it wasn't too clear whether or not their cover had just been blown. Even if they were discovered, would their current allies give them up?

"What are you getting at?" Ulrich narrowed his eyes glaring at the other man  
"Hans!" Aelita scolded seeing that her friend's losing his temper could blow their cover "What he means is; we're not them, which is what I think you're implying."  
"That's what I thought too… I mean they're dead right? Otherwise, X.A.N.A would have been defeated a long time ago, since they're _so_ powerful." Michel paced up and down a couple of times before turning back to face them "Then it occurred to me, your son calls himself Kai Ishiyama, doesn't he Hans? Or should that be Ulrich Stern?"

It was only a strong glare from Aelita which prevented Ulrich from drawing his swords. Still, she had been too slow to prevent him from reaching for them; a movement which hadn't gone unnoticed by Michel and his armed buddies. In a split second, all the guns were pointed at the two of them ready to shoot them should they try anything violent. Reluctantly, he lowered his hands in a surrendering motion. His old friend breathed an internal sigh of relief, she would rather that they not get shot here and now…

"So all these years, you two have been hiding amongst us; pretending that you were just regular refugees." He paused for a moment before taking the photo back and contemplating it "So let me guess; Christopher and Marie are Belpois' children and Ishiyama is that Chinese girl, Yumi."  
"Japanese." Ulrich corrected glaring daggers  
"Why not tell us?" He asked  
"We were afraid that you might hand us over." Aelita replied "That and we didn't want to disappoint you."  
"Too late for that... I'll admit, I had slightly higher hopes for the legendary Lyoko warriors."  
"Yeah? Well so did we."

There was a long pause following Ulrich's declaration, it rung terrifyingly true in Aelita's heart. They had initially believed during the first attacks that they would simply be able to fight off X.A.N.A like they always had by getting to the supercomputer. Evidently, that had proved to be a complete failure. They had never got back into Paris, let alone to the supercomputer. It was far too heavily guarded by X.A.N.A's monsters and they lacked the military might to get even half way there.

"You need to go!" Michel told them  
"What?! You can't kick us out! Winter's almost here!" Aelita argued  
"That's not what I meant…" Michel let out a frustrated sigh "One of the scouts who found this went and delivered it to X.A.N.A. He promised your heads on a platter."  
"What?!" Ulrich yelled outraged "He knows X.A.N.A will just kill him right?!"  
"I'm guessing he was desperate." Michel replied rubbing the back of his neck "I've ordered a complete evacuation. Looks like X.A.N.A finally found a way to get to us… We ended up giving ourselves up… What are you waiting for?! Go! Your horses are ready!"

The two Lyoko warriors nodded before beginning to rush down the hill. Michel and his friends followed, they needed to get back to the camp as well. Panic filled Aelita as well as fear for her children. This was far from the first time that they had had to flee before X.A.N.A but every time, the danger seemed greater and greater. They could already hear commotion as the men and women struggled to get everything that they needed.

"Why are you doing this?" Ulrich asked whilst running alone "Why let us go?"  
"Well number one is that we figured X.A.N.A is after you guys so he'll chase you not us." Michel replied before adding "Number two, I've seen you two in action. Even although you couldn't stop this apocalypse, I reckon that you might be the only ones able to defeat him."

At the foot of the hill, the kids were already waiting with five horses saddled and ready to go. They each carried a bag full of supplies. Both Chip and his sister looked thoroughly terrified: wide eyes, even shaking slightly. Kai seemed to be contenting himself with simply looking forwards towards the expanse of the forest and the falling snow. Aelita rushed forwards instantly jumping into her horse's saddle whilst Ulrich grabbed a bag which his son passed him and placed it over his shoulders.

"Has X.A.N.A finally found us?" Chip asked in a shrunken voice  
"I'm afraid it looks that way…" Aelita didn't believe in lying to her children in order to comfort them "But for now, don't think about it. We've just got to ride."  
"Okay…" Marie replied tightening her grip on the reins.

Without warning there was a loud explosion and the ground shook. A terrible silence followed for a few moments before distant screams of terror could be heard. Almost instantly they were drowned out by the sound of heavy gunfire. They could make out a part of the camp in the distance, faint red flashes were also visible; it was a sign that they had learnt to recognize all too well: lasers.

"They're here." Ulrich declared grimly


	5. Chapter 4

The children remained frozen in place on their horses looking behind them to where they could hear the battle. Even for the two youngest, it awoke some terrifying memories…

_"Jeremy!" Aelita's cry rung out through the thundering rain. "They're only a mile behind us now!"  
"I know!" He shouted back so that she could hear him "But this rainfall is washing away the path!"_

_Jeremy walked behind them slightly. He was the one with the gun ready for when the monsters finally caught up with them. They had fled two weeks ago into the Alps but X.A.N.A had never been far behind. Now, in autumn they struggled along a moody river bank to try and find somewhere to hide. The rains had been unusually bad this year causing the river to serge up far higher and more violently than it usually did. Their every step was being slowed down as they became bogged down in the viscous mud._

_X.A.N.A gave them no warning; he had simply appeared one day. They had been lucky to escape with their lives. After six years, he had finally found them and now, he was sparing no expense in his attempts to find and kill his old enemies. The children were too young to be running like this; they could barely keep up but neither of their parents were able to carry them. As a result, they hustled them along as best they could; holding their hands to try and help them keep up._

_Aelita would never forget what happened next, not until the end of her life._

_Without warning a large part of the bank simply gave way; washed into the coursing river. With it slipped Chip, Marie and their mother. Jeremy barely had enough time to realize what had happened before he saw his wife and two children get swept away. In an instant, he was running along after them as fast as his legs could carry him. Aelita grabbed her two children; desperately trying to keep them together and their heads above the water._

_"Aelita!" Came Jeremy's increasingly distant cry  
"Jeremy!"_

She was abruptly brought back into her current reality by a laser beam which came perilously close to them. She suspected that the shot wasn't intentional but rather a miss or a deflected shot. In any case, it was simply too close for comfort. She quickly checked her gun; she had enough bullets to take out a few monsters but probably not enough to join the fight. They had learnt long ago that you couldn't confront X.A.N.A head on. At best you could keep him at bay a while and then make a quick retreat.

"Aelita! Take the kids! I'm going to see if I can buy you and the others some time!" Ulrich declared getting onto his horse  
"Okay."

She received a couple of surprised looks from the children wondering why she was allowing him to leave and risk his life so easily.

She didn't have time to explain to them. They would hopefully understand one day; preferably sooner rather than later; that sometimes the right decision wasn't always an easy one to make. Ulrich was a strong fighter, he would be able to hold back X.A.N.A's monsters longer than most, with his experience and he would also with any luck be able to best judge when it was time to pull back and retreat. Even although she would rather that he rode with them and that he be safe, she knew that tactically it was better if he stayed back there. Besides, there was no time to argue.

"Come on!" She told the kids setting off at a gallop in front of them.

It took a moment but they quickly followed her. Ulrich was already disappearing in the opposite direction.

Aelita made a quick note of their current direction: they were heading south-east further into the Alps and the mountains. It would be harder for X.A.N.A to find them in all that forest and with any luck they would be able to find a cave or something similar to hide in. As they galloped along, the sound of the fighting became fainter and fainter, a small relief for even if they could no longer hear it they knew that the battle was still raging and that their friends were probably being killed.

The children kept up as best they could. They remained in an arrowhead formation with Aelita up front and guiding the way. Just where she was going, she wasn't too sure…

Their knowledge of the surrounding areas was poor to say the least. When they had first set up the camp. They had created several zones:

· The green zone: where they lived, it was generally considered to be safe

· The yellow zone: they had never encountered any of X.A.N.A's monsters there but caution was still advised

· The amber zone: monsters were frequently spotted there and travelling there was prohibited

· The red zone: X.A.N.A ruled, anyone who went there died. It was plain and simple.

Although that system had allowed them to stay alive for many years, it had also prevented them from ever exploring. Obviously, that meant that they didn't know what awaited them further in the mountains or anywhere else for that matter. It was true that most of X.A.N.A's presence was concentrated around the cities where he would scavenge metal and computer parts to continue to grow his army.

"Kai, have you ever seen any of X.A.N.A's monsters passed the river?" Aelita asked him suddenly  
"No." He replied "Never."  
"Neither have I." She replied before turning her horse "We're not heading to the mountains anymore! We're heading west!"  
"What?!" Marie asked speeding up to ride alongside her mother "But the mountains are safer!"  
"And X.A.N.A will be waiting for us there!"

The kids paused as if they were considering her words. Perhaps if they had fought X.A.N.A as long as she had then they would understand that X.A.N.A relied purely on logic. The logical place for the humans to flee would be deeper into the forest. Therefor it was likely that the artificial intelligence's monsters would be waiting for them there. The least logical place to go was to the west heading out towards the desolate lands. That was where they were currently heading.

Aelita's heart was in her mouth. She wished that she could be 100% confident about her decision. She wished she could assure her children and the son of her best friend that everything was going to be alright but the truth was that that would be a lie. She had no way of knowing that beyond the trees they weren't going to discover an army of krabs and mantas. All she had was the hope that she was right and that X.A.N.A would be waiting for them in the forest.

As the distance between them and the battle became larger, silence settled in. There wasn't a trace of X.A.N.A, just as she had hoped. As they rode on, they even dared slow the horses to prevent them from tiring. They rode on for the rest of the day, trying as best as they could to not think about what could possibly have happened to their friends and allies back at the camp. Silence reigned over the little group as they rode along to the sound of their horses' hooves on the earth.

It was turning to evening by the time that they finally stopped. Aelita couldn't have said how many miles they had covered and without the faintest sign of any enemies either. It all seemed too good to be true. They tethered the horses, allowing them to get some well-earned rest and to graze on the long grass. Still, not a word was exchanged between the group as they set up their own camp.

They set up a small fire and cooked some of the food which they had been given. They must have travelled far down the hill as the temperature was markedly warmer. Aelita let out a sigh as she contemplated their supplies; it could have been worse but then it was hardly ideal either. They had enough food for one maybe two weeks, no medical supplies whatsoever and only basic clothes. Considering that both Marie and Chip were too young to hunt for themselves; that would leave just her and Kai and with winter almost there it would make pickings scarce.

"Do you think the others got out okay?" Marie asked looking down at her piece of bread  
"I'm sure they did." Kai assured her placing a hand on her shoulder

Aelita didn't respond. She didn't want to get their hopes up.


	6. Chapter 5

The morning's sun failed to bring much warmth; it was only just strong enough to pierce through the mists which covered the valley. Aelita was the first awoken, her eyes fluttered open to see her two children wrapped up warmly only a few feet away, both of them were still fast asleep; exhaustion and stress had both taken a heavy toll on the two of them. Their mother slowly tried to pick herself up. Her muscles were tense and sore from a mixture of the hard day's riding and the cold dampness which surrounded them.

Kai was also fast asleep, curled up in a little ball trying his best to keep warm. She let out a soft sigh wondering what her old friend would have thought at seeing her young son sleeping on the ground with little more than a blanket. In a way, maybe in some strange way, it was a good thing that she hadn't lived long enough to see what had become of her family and the rest of the human race for that matter. They were reduced to sleeping on the ground in the mud and scavenging for food like animals, a little over ten years ago most dogs wouldn't have lived like this.

_I miss you Yumi…_ She thought to herself. God, she missed _so_ many people. Jeremy was at the top of the list, every morning she would wake up, expecting him to be there only to find him absent. The lack of her husband left a hole in her heart which she wasn't sure would ever heal up. Odd Della Robia, what she would give to hear one of his jokes or silly comments right now. William, Jim, Sissi Mr. Delmas, her parents-in-law and now Ulrich… They all left a massive space which she had more and more trouble filling and hiding from the others.

Still, she was now in charge of their lives; she had that responsibility to shoulder alone. That left her with no opportunity to waste time feeling sorry for herself. Getting to her feet, she walked over to the slumbering children and teenager and gently shook them awake.

"Come on guys! On your feet, we're out of here in half an hour."

They nodded rather groggily as they pulled themselves together. Whilst the children prepared diner, Aelita ensured that none of the horses had been injured in the escape the day before. After a quick examination, they seemed to be in good enough health and a night's rest had done them some good. Still, they would have to be a lot slower and more gently today; after all, they were animals not cars. She patted her gray mare on the neck; the horse gave her a brief glance before getting back to the much more interesting grass beneath its feet.

Their breakfast was bland to say the least: tinned beans. One of the few vestiges of the old human civilization which remained was tinned food curiously enough. That was because it was still good to eat, even after all these years it still hadn't gone off. Occasionally, back at their old camp, they would stumble across a house and raid its supplies in search of tinned foods. The supplies that their little group had were such finds; these beans have been picked before Christopher had even been born…

"Remember." Aelita told them as they mounted their horses once again "Any sign of X.A.N.A whatsoever, even if you're not sure you tell us!"  
"Right." Marie spoke for the group of youngsters.

The horses walked on through the woods and deserted fields. Nature reclaimed its rights, it was only natural. Where once there had been fields of corn and wheat, now the forest was beginning to return. It also led to some rather interesting scenes such as the ever growing herds of wild cattle which existed further north in regions like Brittany and Normandy. If only it was safe to venture that far, it would have solved a lot of their food problems…

The ride attracted the interest of the two younger children; they had very few memories of life before the camp. They could remember their father, the blonde haired genius but as they had been born only a few years before X.A.N.A had taken over, they had no memories of the world which humans had ruled. This world which they now rode through fascinated the two of them; every now and then, they would pass a house and take a note of its architecture and design. They would imagine the people that had lived there and how they must have had an easy life.

It made their mother smile softly as she noticed it, even in the darkest of hours, her children's curiosity seemed boundless. This was in some way an adventure for them, the idea that their lives were at risk now seemed far removed from their minds as they came across a series of road signs pointing to various French villages whose inhabitants had abandoned them a decade ago.

Her eyes turned to see Kai on his flaxen horse. Unlike them, he seemed to be rather unimpressed with this world which he was rediscovering. Of course, he had lived in it. He could remember it, even if only vaguely, which meant that he could also realize how much everything had changed. It wasn't like in some disaster movies where for some reason everything was crumbling apart and only ruins were left. Instead, everything was still standing; it was simply empty of inhabitants. Things were different in the cities where there had been more fighting: some of them had been virtually whipped off of the planet.

The teen's dark eyes covered the vast outstretches of land but all the time, his memory kept on drawing him back to a distant past, his own. Yet it still stung him as if it was happing at that very instant.

_Ulrich stepped hard on the accelerator causing the car to speed forwards towards X.A.N.A's monsters. Yumi held her son as close as she could; he was frozen in place from fear. The car collided with the Tankrelats without much difficulty, they made an awful crunching sound as he drove over them and the car bumped as if he were driving over potholes. It was a different story when he collided with the block however. It was like hitting a brick wall. The monster itself was knocked over and promptly exploded but their car was instantly wrecked. _

_Yumi instantly rushed forwards, picking her son up as she went. Inside, Ulrich was lying stunned against the now deployed air bags. Acting quickly, she opened the door. He wasn't seriously hurt thank goodness; he might have some nasty bruises tomorrow but nothing more. Slowly, he turned his head to look at her before struggling out of the car. He fell to his knees on the pavement outside gasping for breath._

_"That was a stupid thing to do!" She told him._  
_"Had to be done…" He replied _  
_"Come on, we've got to get out of here before X.A.N.A sends some real nasties!"_  
_"Right…" Ulrich winced getting to his feet_

"What do you think Kai?" Marie asked him  
"Huh?" The teen asked been shaken from his thoughts  
"What should we name the horses?"  
"Oh."

Yumi Ishiyama's son looked around trying to remember once more where he was. He had been daydreaming again or more accurately remembering that day, that terrible day, ten years ago. Not a day went by where he didn't think back to it. He could remember almost every single second, as if it had been forever burnt into his memory. He would most often find himself back there if he had nothing else to do but think, he had little else to do on this long horse ride so figured that he should be expecting many more flashbacks during their journey.

Remembering the younger child's question, he replied:

"My horse already has a name, Yama."  
"Oh yeah, what does it mean again?" She asked.  
"It's Japanese for mountain isn't it?" Chip joined the conversation "From that lullaby, right?"  
"My mother's lullaby, yes." He replied blankly  
"So what should we call them?"  
"I don't know. I guess it's up for you to decide, since we can't ask them."

Eventually, Napoleon and Hannibal were decided upon for the two bay horses which the children rode. Aelita named hers Apple. It was a way to pass time although it didn't exactly last long. Kai had named his horse when he had found him a year ago. Considering its rather flighty temperament nobody had really minded when he had claimed the animal as his own. He had learnt to ride out of necessity, as they all had, horses didn't generate electricity and had become the only truly safe way to get around with X.A.N.A on the prowl.

They rode on gently only stopping briefly for lunch. They chose a secluded glen. It allowed the horses to rest and graze on some of the grass whilst they themselves feasted on a loaf of bread between them. They had been making bred at the camp for a few years now, once they had managed to grow some wheat, it had become a staple part of their diet along with potatoes. Unfortunately, it didn't last half as long and soon became stale and too hard to eat. Still, the children most certainly weren't complaining.

Aelita smiled to herself as the kids started trying to find animal tracks or rather Kai taught them how to find them. Perhaps it was because he had spent more than half of his life in the wilderness and had grown up with a "eat or be eaten" mentality but Kai had a natural talent for everything that involved tracking, hunting and overall survival in the wilderness. More so than his father, Ulrich, he was brilliant when it came to fighting X.A.N.A, unfortunately he wasn't so good with wild animals.

So when Kai lifted his head at the sight of some birds flying off, away from the forest. She knew something was up. He put a hand on Chip's shoulder, stopping the child who was busy following a rabbit's footprints in the mud.

"Get them to safety!" Aelita instructed getting her pistol quickly  
"Right."

Kai began to hurry the younger children back over to the horses. They needed to move and move quickly. He helped them into the saddles. The horses looked a little unhappy at being disturbed so soon into their meals: both Napoleon and Hannibal's ears went back as the children sat back down in the saddles. Just how X.A.N.A had located them, she didn't know. After all, they had been careful. It must have been a random group which had detected the presence of humans and set on search ad destroy mode.

Kai gave her a nervous look before heading over to his own horse. Yama raised his large head and whinnied. The teen suddenly turned his attention back towards the forest, as if he were rediscovering it.

"Aelita wait a second!" He requested.

The pink haired woman gave him a brief glance. Every second they waited, meant that X.A.N.A would find it all the easier to catch and murder them. Dying was something that Aelita was honestly prepared to do if it meant that her children survived. If however nothing was gained it seemed like an awful waste. Still, for some reason she held off and kept her gun firmly in her hand but didn't order them to go.

A few moments later, a fifth black horse with a tall rider emerged. It was Ulrich.


	7. Chapter 6

**Yay! A comment! Sorry for the delay but major storms=major power-cuts! **

**Hopefully this chapter will answer your question 21 is ****_Awesome_****. **

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The lyoko warrior raised his head slightly upon noticing the other group. He didn't speed up however, if anything he slowed down slightly. Now that he had found them, he could afford to take it easier. His horse needed rest. Aelita and the children felt a swell of relief wash over them as they saw the familiar figure draw ever closer. As did Yama as he saw his old horse friend approach, he had sensed them a while ago and called out. That was how Kai had known, that it wasn't X.A.N.A approaching but rather an old friend.

Aelita began to walk towards Ulrich. Her gun still clenched tightly in her hand. Ulrich got off of his horse as soon as he was a little closer. The way that he dismounted (very stiffly) told Aelita that he hadn't stopped riding in a while. His face was blank as he approached; showing no signs of joy at encountering them once more. There were dark lines under both of his eyes; she doubted that he had slept last night.

He paused a couple of feet in front of her. Without hesitating, Aelita pulled her pistol up and aimed at his forehead. Behind her, the kids gave her confused looks wondering just what she was playing at. The gun was very much loaded and only too capable of killing him.

"Prove that you're not a spectre!" She told him keeping her finger on the trigger "What was the name of the woman you love?"  
"Yumi Ishiyama." Ulrich replied bitterly, Aelita still didn't lower her weapon "That's a bad question. X.A.N.A knows the answer to that. After all, he killed her."  
"But X.A.N.A wouldn't have pointed that out." She lowered her weapon, offering him a smile "Good to have you back."  
"I thought I told you never to bring up Yumi?"

Aelita let out a sigh and watched as he walked past. Perhaps the question had been too close to home for him and had hurt him but it was the only thing that she had been able to think of to ensure he wasn't a spectre. They had more sophisticated ways of telling of course but it required hours of interrogation, at a time like this, she only had a few moments. Her question had caused her old friend to slip into one of his grim moods once more but considering that he was almost permanently in such a state these days anyway it was hardly a change.

"Aren't you going to ask me?" Aelita asked walking after him  
"X.A.N.A wouldn't have pointed a gun to my face." Ulrich replied  
"Point taken." She agreed, Ulrich walked past his son and the children without so much as a second glance. "How did you find us?"  
"I was going to head towards the mountains when Dominique told me that he'd seen you guys turn tail and head west. I took me three hours to find your tracks. I haven't stopped riding to catch up." He walked forwards a couple of steps, his tired eyes fell upon each of the children as if he were taking note of their existence for the first time "Good, you all got out."  
"Looks like it could rain soon." Chip noted looking up at the dark clouds "That should wash away the tracks."

Ulrich nodded in agreement. Taking advantage of the situation to stretch out his tired muscles, Ulrich paced up and down a couple of times. Sure enough, just as the youngest of the children had predicted, it soon began to rain. At first, it was only a few fine droplets but it soon turned into a downpour. They weren't unusual here in autumn. They presented a great threat back at the camp, it wasn't infrequent for the heavy rains to cause mudslides, not dissimilar to the one that had separated Jeremy from the rest of his family…

Despite the rain, within a few moments, he was back on his horse and they were riding along as if they had never been separated. The heavy rain drenched through their clothes which were hardly waterproof. They had scavenged what they wore, occasionally patching it up with pieces of mismatching fabric. The end result was neither warm nor necessarily comfortable but it was all they had.

Ulrich was his usual quiet self, he seldom talked openly nowadays; it was rare but sometimes he opened up a little to her but never in front of others, especially not the children. He only spoke when someone asked a question. His somewhat grim presence caused the little group to cease talking completely for a good hour and a half. Eventually, it was young Marie who finally decided to ask the question that was on all of their minds:

"What happened to the others?"  
"At least twenty of them are dead; Michel, François, Amandine…" He listed each of their names but didn't go into any detail on how they were killed; there was a tone of distance in his voice which was almost mechanical "I don't know about the others, they fled further into the mountains."  
"Did X.A.N.A follow you?" Aelita asked nervously looking behind her to ensure that there were no pursuers.  
"He did for a little while, which is why I started off by fleeing south before losing them and heading out here." He told them "Don't worry, they're not following. After all, if we keep heading in this direction, we'll be in the glass lands."

Aelita's eyes widened as she realized that they were heading west. Of course, she knew which direction they were heading in. After all, she had a compass and was more than capable of navigating. It was more that she had forgotten what was out here…

What Ulrich referred to as the Glass Lands were about a 100km radius around where the city of Marseille had once stood. It had been one of the last strong holds in all of France and had met a rather bitter if instantaneous end. X.A.N.A had launched a bomb, a terrible bomb which had levelled everything in an instant. The heat from the explosion was said to have been so great, that the earth beneath their feet had been turned to glass. There was nothing there now, just death and bad memories…

Even X.A.N.A didn't go there anymore as there was no need. Nothing could survive for any length of time, no humans would be foolish enough to try and cross it: there was no food and no water. Yet it was where they were heading.

The rain finally stopped just as the sun was beginning to set. Leaving each of them soaked through to the skin, with their hair dripping wet. The horses had slowed down considerably from a mixture of fatigue and the reluctance to have to trudge through the rain.

Their discussions were brief and usually not about much. She imagined that the children were still in shock. Chip and Marie at least, had never really witnessed a true massacre. She had been lucky enough to get them out before they witnessed the one back at the camp. Aelita had witnessed the effects of post-traumatic stress on many a person following X.A.N.A's rise to power. For some, it had proved too much. Kai and Ulrich who had fought and survived through the destruction of Paris both carried their scars; they just never talked about them.

"We should stop soon." Aelita declared seeing the sun slowly begin to set.  
"Yes, we need to find some cover first." Ulrich agreed.

They eventually settled down in a small rocky formation at the base of a cliff. There was very little change that night from the night before. Ulrich's presence brought reassurance to the children however, despite his coldness towards them as a general, for the past few years he had watched over them alongside her. Knowing that he was alive and safe would bring them some comfort. They lit the fire and once more cooked their food.

The kids eventually did begin to talk amongst themselves, chattering and giggling about various things. Aelita smiled warmly, it was good to see them with a little more life in them than last night. Kai was busy explaining something about how to make a snare trap to the two of them. Both Chip and Marie had been becoming more involved with the day-to-day survival back at the camp. When they were younger, they had been somewhat exempt and allowed to do what they pleased. Now, obviously that was even less of an option… They would have to learn to survive out here; just as she had, just had Ulrich and Kai had.

"Can we have a bedtime story?" Chip cautiously asked as time for sleeping grew near.  
"You guys realize that I don't have Peter Pan, right?" She only had vital supplies; children's story's didn't really fit into that. "Besides, there's not enough light to read."  
"You can make one up!" Marie insisted looking to her mother with pleading eyes.  
"Well… I guess that I could try."

She hasn't made up a story in quite some time. Peter Pan had kept them going for a good month before and she had read them other stories beforehand. Sitting next to her children who were warmly tucked up in their sleeping bags, she began to invent a story. _Why not start with Mr. Pück?_ She thought to herself remembering her old toy. Using her old dreams/nightmares as the starting point, she managed to create an entire world around the little elf. The children defiantly seemed to enjoy it, she was all too aware of just how tired they were.

It wasn't long before they were falling asleep, she allowed herself to stop telling the story. They didn't even notice as both of them nodded off exhausted. Kai offered her a slight smile before curling up into a ball and drifting off to sleep. Aelita watched them for a few moments, they looked so peaceful… As they should have been all the time, as they would have been were it not for X.A.N.A and the looming menace of extinction.

She could have spent hours like that but tonight she had other matters to attend to. Turning back to see her old friend, she let out a sigh. Despite their reunion, things were far from good. He was sitting a fair distance away from the camp; out of earshot of the children. Not that they would have heard the discussion, they were fast asleep and she doubted that a little chatter would have awoken them.

"So, we're heading to the Glass Lands…" Ulrich muttered as she sat next to him.  
"Looks that way." Aelita replied. "We can't turn back and we know that X.A.N.A's got too many bases north for us to be able to slip through."  
"Do you think that the glass lands will live up to their name?"  
"I guess we'll see what they look like."  
"What do you think we'll find out there Aelita?" Ulrich asked her standing up "Some great resistance? A secret weapon? Safe heaven?!"

Aelita narrowed her eyes, what was this about? She had been expecting a simple discussion about their next move and tactics. An argument, which is what this looked like it was going to turn into, wasn't something she was exactly prepared for. As such, she remained silent for a few moments, looking into the cold and tired brown eyes of the Samurai. She wished so much to see the same will to live course through them that she had known as a teen…

"I don't know what we'll find out there." She replied looking down at the mud beneath her feet. "But it can't be any worse that what we just left behind."  
"Hm…" He paused for a moment, as if he were deep in thought. "A X.A.N.A laser or starving to death… A great choice you've got set up there. Maybe we should ask the ch-"  
"Ulrich stop it!" Aelita commanded lowly, deciding not to even let him finish his sentence. "You were and are a lot of things! But you're not cruel."

Ulrich looked at her with wide eyes and a look of surprise on his face. He stayed starring at her like that for a few moments, before looking away down at his feet. His head hung low, as he tried to come to grasps with what he had just said. He wondered for a few moments, if he had actually meant it or whether it had simply been anger and exhaustion talking. He let out a deep sigh before turning to look back at his old friend, perhaps his only friend still remaining in this world, or what was left of it.

"I'm sorry Aelita…" He muttered quietly but sincerely. "It's just-"  
"I understand." She spoke softly whilst placing her right hand on his shoulder, in that calming voice that she alone seemed to be able to produce. "I miss them too…"  
"We've lost so much…"  
"Yes but not everything. Kai, Marie and Chip are alive because of those who we have lost sacrifices. We're still alive."  
"Just…" Ulrich replied in a hushed voice, taking her hand which had been placed on his shoulder and looking at it. "Only just…"

Aelita lowered her own gaze, to look at what was left of her right hand. Two years ago, she had lost her ring finger to frostbite. It had been a colder than usual snap in the mountains, a slight tear in her glove coupled with dealing with freezing water had led to her being forced to amputate it when some signs of infection had become visible. Or rather she had had to Ulrich to do so. He had objected fervently at the idea of hurting her and it had taken a god few hours of her insisting and explaining to him that it would be better than gangrene and potentially a lethal infection before he had finally agreed to help.

That decision still haunted him today, despite the fact that it had made very little difference to her life. Sure it was a tad unsightly and sometimes holding things with her right hand was a little more complicated than with her left but she had learnt to live with it and now took no notice of it.

"How many times am I going to have to ask you to forget about that?" She asked him with a warm smile.  
"Jeremy would have killed me." He muttered looking away.  
"If he'd have tried to stop you I would have killed him, now stop beating yourself up over it!" She commanded. "If we're going to survive this, we've got to stick together!"  
"You're right." He agreed.  
"And that means no more _mopping_, alright mister?!" She insisted slightly be elbowing him in the ribs.  
"Ouch… Okay, I'll try…"

Aelita gave him a satisfied smirk. Just how effective this little talk had been remained to be seen, she knew that her old friend could be difficult to say the least. Still, she kept up some hopes for him. It wasn't long before the two adults were settling down near the fire ready to go to sleep themselves. Aelita gave each of her children a little kiss on the forehead to say goodnight as she always did, whilst her old friend contented himself with a glance to ensure that they were safe.

"Goodnight. Sleep tight." She muttered tiredly as she settled down in her sleeping bag.  
"Goodnight…" Came the reply.


	8. Chapter 7

_"__Yumi? What are you doing here?" Ulrich asked seeing his old friend standing only a few feet away.  
"Oh! Hi Ulrich… I just- Came to watch the game…" The young Japanese woman admitted brushing some hair behind her ear.  
"Great!" He offered her a wide smile before frowning slightly. "I thought that you had college?"  
"I- I took the day off." She replied looking down at her feet suddenly.  
"Is everything alright, Yumi?" He asked growing slightly concerned. "You realize that you can tell me anything right."_

_Yumi nodded slightly nervously. Ulrich took notice of the odd behavior but decided not to insist any further. Time and experience had taught him that there were times when prying with Yumi was necessary but more often than not, she would open up eventually by herself. Still, her attitude puzzled him; it had been a while since he had seen her act this way. True, he saw a little less of her now that she had graduated but usually they saw each other at least five times a week, even if it was only for a few moments._

_They walked through the park, heading towards the stadium. Today, was officially the last soccer game of the year, meaning Ulrich's final game at Kadic. Their opponents? Lincoln. The match bore a rather sticking resemblance to a game he had played quite some time ago. Hopefully, this time nobody would end up floating towards the sky after a demonic A.I effectively turned off the gravity. With X.A.N.A defeated however that seemed rather unlikely._

_"It feels weird to be back at Kadic." Yumi admitted looking around the familiar grounds. "It's been a year but it still feels sort of like home."  
"Yeah, to think I only have a couple of weeks left…" He gave the girl a brief glance before smiling. "It'll be odd studying somewhere with no secret passages."  
"I haven't quite gotten used to it myself!" Yumi responded after a laugh before becoming serious once more. "Ul- Ulrich, there's something I need to tell you…"  
"Yes Yumi?" He asked turning around to look her dead in the eyes. "What is it?"  
"I- Do you-"  
"Stern!"_

_They turned around to see a very familiar figure running towards them. Perhaps running was pushing it, more like walking at a pace which said he was trying to run but his slight weight excess made it difficult to do so. Jim, who needed no introduction, came over to them with a frustrated look on his face. He stopped however as he noticed Yumi, the young Japanese girl offered him a warm smile. Ulrich was pretty sure this was about kick off time and how he was dangerously close to missing it. Thankfully, the presence of one of his ex-students seemed to have distracted him somewhat it only took him a couple of seconds before he got over it though._

_"Oh! Hi Yumi!" The gym teacher greeted her with a sincere smile.  
"Hello, Jim." She replied warmly.  
"Aren't you supposed to be in college or something?" He asked raising an eyebrow as his old suspicions resurfaced.  
"I don't have class today." She lied.  
"Oh well, are you going to watch the game then?"  
"Yes…" Her voice trailed off ever-so slightly.  
"Then get moving the both of you!" Jim abruptly shouted._

_Ulrich didn't see Yumi again until he was on the pitch. She was sitting down on the benches, surrounded by the rest of the Lyoko gang. The old friends chatted amicably before they noticed him walk on. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his girlfriend's encouraging smile. He returned the gesture discreetly. Her presence was unexpected yet a welcome one. Still, her attitude puzzled him, something was defiantly on her mind._

_He didn't have enough time to think about it any further as the whistle was blown and the game commenced. It went without saying that they won. Football came naturally to him, a lot more naturally than science and math in any case. Still, he had been pleasantly surprised when he had received his past few report cards; it was amazing just how much fighting X.A.N.A had disrupted their everyday lives. It had taken them several months to get used to not having to rush to the factory for one reason or another. Sure, at first they had all missed it somewhat but as time went by, they had found something better…_

_At the end of the game, the spectators were cheering. The celebrating pored over onto the pitch slightly as a crowd formed around Ulrich seeking to congratulate him. As flattered as he was, his attention was elsewhere. He managed to see past those surrounding him and spot Yumi. She raised her head upon noticing his gaze fixed upon her and gave him a warm smile. Jim stood between them blocking his view. He let out a frustrated sigh before moving his head to one side slightly to see past. Yumi had disappeared._

_Unable to see her anywhere else, he was about to let out a slight curse when a strong hand grabbed him from behind. A little surprised, he turned around to see William with the rest of his friends. Odd steps forwards:_

_"Ladies and gentlemen! Our star striker has something very important that he needs to deal with, so if you'd be so kind as to address all praise and worship to Odd the magnificent!"  
"Go catch up with Yumi." William spoke quietly so that only he could hear. "There's something on her mind."  
"Right…" Ulrich agreed.  
"We'll hold off your adoring fans!" Aelita told him with a wink._

_The soccer player headed off towards the park. He had no way of knowing just where Yumi was headed but considering her current state of mind, he was willing to bet that she was taking a steady walk back home whilst passing through the park. Breaking into a run, he went down the familiar dirt paths running through the place that he had called home for many years. Sure enough, just ahead he could make out a familiar figure walking slowly along._

_"Yumi!" He called out._

_She turned around; the young woman looked a little surprised to see him coming towards her so quickly. Once he reached her, he paused trying to catch his breath. It was summer and hot, he had been playing soccer all afternoon and following his sprint, he had just given himself a side stitch. Yumi looked at him sympathetically, as he gasped for breath. Eventually, they both walked a little further until they came across a tap, usually used for gardening but today served to give Ulrich a much needed drink._

_"You should be back there…" Yumi told him once he was finally in a state to be able to have a conversation with her.  
"Maybe but I'd rather be with you…" He replied looking her dead in the eyes. "What's bothering you?"  
"Nothing Ulrich." She replied looking away, as if something in the trees had distracted her. "I'm fine really."  
"Do I have to bring you another rose to get you to say what's wrong?"  
"No. No, had better not do that."_

_Yumi let out a slight sigh before turning away from her boyfriend. He gave her a few moments to herself, so that she could gather her thoughts together. He had learnt to be patient with this kind of thing, although it did make him feel a little uneasy wondering just what she could have to say that seemed to be so difficult to tell him. He wasn't a fool; there was a big difference between not having great grades and being an idiot. He placed a hand on her shoulder; she turned around to look him in the eyes._

_"You remember Odd's party a couple of months ago?" She asked not breaking eye contact.  
"Hard to forget it." He replied smiling.  
"Yeah, uh… You remember what happened afterwards?"  
"Oh…" Ulrich muttered figuring out where this was all going.  
"It's uh… I'm uh…"  
"Wanna sit down?" The Lyoko Samurai suggested gesturing at a bench.  
"I think I need to."_

_A couple of minutes later, Yumi was telling him everything. Ulrich listened attentively but didn't say a word. His girlfriend had begun to speak and now, nothing was going to stop her from getting her story out. He had sort of been expecting something like this; two days ago, she had abruptly stopped answering his calls and then when she'd suddenly turned up out of the blue like this. Okay, maybe he hadn't know the exact cause but still, he wasn't quite as shocked as he could have been._

_"So I decided to come here- and… God, Ulrich I don't know what to do…" She muttered placing her head in her hands.  
"Well, what do you want to do?" He asked her gently.  
"I'm 20 in a month Ulrich…" Yumi muttered quietly. "I'm studying law and now I've got a baby. I can't- can't possibly- I've got to-"  
"Is that what you think or what others have been telling you?" He frowned ever so slightly.  
"Mom and dad… They think I should get rid of it, one way or another." She paused letting out a deep sigh. "But- But, when I think back to everything we've seen. I dunno, it kind of shines a new light on life."  
"Sure does." Ulrich agreed looking up at the warm sun as some clouds passed over it.  
"I- Ulrich, would you be happy as a father?" She asked him suddenly.  
"Honestly?" He asked looking down at Yumi through his brown eyes. "So long as you're there, I'll be happy. I love you Yumi…"_

_He passed his arm around her shoulders and pulled her a little closer. She tucked her head under her chin and let out a deep sigh. He sensed her relax ever-so-slightly, perhaps for the first time in a while. Gently, he ran a hand through her short black hair. This was going to be fun to explain to his parents: nineteen years old, heading off to college in a few months and a father to be…_

_Yumi was sitting with her parents in the main room of their house. The heated discussion coming from the kitchen where Ulrich had chosen to call his parents from made its way through the doors and to her ears. True, she couldn't understand most of it as it was being carried out in German but she could most definitely pick up on the aggression. She suspected that Ulrich was intentionally speaking in German (his mother tongue) so that she couldn't quite understand what was being said. By his own admission he was now far more comfortable speaking in French and she knew that his parents were both fluent in the language; this was his way of censoring an unpleasant argument._

_After about half an hour's argument, there was a final yell of German__**: Dann einfach verloren dir einen Sonn! **__Despite Yumi's only basic grasp of the language, she was fairly certain that last sentence meant that things hadn't turned out so well. The rage still marked on Ulrich's face as he walked in only seemed to confirm that theory._

_"__What happened to your cellphone?" Hiroki asked.  
"I'll fetch it from the garden later." Ulrich replied grimly, running a hand through his hair to try and relieve some of the stress.  
"They didn't take it very well, did they?" Yumi guessed.  
"Well, let me put it this way: I'm officially cut off, disinherited and disowned…"  
"Oh God, I'm sorry Ulrich…" Yumi declared placing her hands over her mouth.  
"Nah… No sweat. It's not like we got on anyway."_

_The Ishiyamas blinked a couple of times perhaps not quite understanding just how Ulrich could be so blaze about effectively losing his parents. Still, they decided against asking him about it. The young man simply smiled; obviously he would have preferred his parents to take the news well and to be supportive of their only child but that was wishful thinking. He knew his parents well enough to have expected their reaction. Oh well, there was always the hope that they'd come around eventually but he suspected that it was unlikely._

_"We'll leave you two in peace shall we?" Suggested Yumi's mother._

_Her father nodded as they both got up to leave. They figured that the couple needed some time to themselves, considering how hectic things had been for them these past 5 hours. Hiroki lingered a few moments obviously pushing his luck and seeing if he could remain and possibly pick up on some gossip. A stern look from Akiko however convinced her son that eavesdropping might not be best; he quickly disappeared out of the room._

_The door shut, leaving the two old friends alone together. After a few moments, Ulrich chose to come away from the window and sit next to Yumi. The Japanese girl gave him a warm smile._

_"Mom and dad say that you can stay here if you want." She informed him.  
"I'd like that…" He replied, honestly he'd love it. "But won't I be getting in the way?"  
"Not really, dad got a promotion. They were going to move and leave me the house anyway." She admitted.  
"Really?!" Ulrich looked around, that had been the one thing worrying him: how would he cope with a family whilst being cut off and trying to get himself an education?  
"Well yeah." Yumi let out a brief sigh before resting her head against Ulrich's shoulder. "Thank you Ulrich…"  
"For what?" He asked a little puzzled.  
"For being you…"  
_  
Ulrich's eyes opened slowly. He had been sleeping on his saddle. Letting out a tired yawn, he straightened himself slightly. It took him a few moments, to remember where he was. As soon as he did, he felt himself long to be back in his dreams and memories. He wanted to be sitting next to the woman he loved as they snuggled together in the living room, not riding along here in this apocalypse.

His eyes lowered slightly to look at the young girl riding along near him. Her little blue eyes looked up at him with concern. Rubbing his eyes slightly in an attempt to remove the sleep from them, Ulrich tried to pull himself together. He looked to his right, Kai, Chip and Aelita were still absent. They had gone scouting a while ago. Despite his concerns, he realized that it was necessary; after all, they had run out of food two days ago and were coming up on the glass lands.

"Sorry about that Marie." He muttered still somewhat absorbed by his dream. "I guess I nodded off."  
"You were talking to yourself." She informed him. "Like Kai does but without the screaming."  
"Yes. I was dreaming." Ulrich informed her.  
"Nightmare?" She questioned tilting her head slightly to one side in a curious fashion.  
"No. No…" A small smile graced his lips as he thought back to it. "I was just remembering…"  
"Remembering what?"  
"The best of days…" He replied.  
"Uh oh… Ulrich's smiling. I haven't seen that in a while."

Ulrich turned around to see Aelita and the boys emerging from the woods. His eyes widened; had he been smiling? Thinking back to those days was one of the few things capable of brining any trace of happiness back to him. Those days, he counted as the happiest of his life: roughly from the initial defeat of X.A.N.A to his sudden reappearance that terrible night. He had been happy: his friends were always by his side, he had had a family and he had had love.

Aelita always told him that in some way, he still had all that. Ever the optimist… If there was one decision in his life that he didn't regret it was turning the supercomputer on and bringing her into the real world. Her never ending kindness and joy had inspired them for so long… If turning on the supercomputer had been the price to pay for that, then so be it… He just hated the people who had come along after them and turned it back on.

His eyes fell upon Chip, the youngest member of their little group was paler than usual and awfully quiet. He hoped that the boy wasn't sick. Out here like this, with almost zero supplies, they wouldn't be able to do much for him.

"We found some bodies." Aelita declared gently bending over and placing a hand on her son's shoulder. "Humans on humans."  
"Sometimes we're our own worst enemies." Ulrich muttered bitterly, gripping his horse's reins a little tighter. "Any sign of the culprits."  
"None, but I think we'd better not stick around and wait to become acquaintances." That was Aelita for: let's run.  
"The good news is that the Glass lands begin just over that hill." Kai informed them pointing at a hill slightly in the distance.  
"Didn't I teach you the meaning of '_Good news?_'" Ulrich asked his son.  
"You taught me how to be grumpy? Does that count?"

Aelita rolled her eyes slightly before urging her horse on. They had found about five corpses left by the side of a road with bullet holes in the; they were a few days old. The mere sight had caused Chip to throw up. She regretted having taken him on their little exploration. Still as disturbing as the sight had been, she feared that he might have to get used to it. Perhaps not to the extent of no longer caring but not panicking was best. It was important to remain clearheaded. Bodies meant that it was time to move on and quickly.

It had been over two weeks since they had been forced to flee. In that time, they had come across no other human beings (excluding the corpses) but fortunately none of X.A.N.A's monsters. He had ruled earth for ten years now, searching for human survivors was no longer one of his major occupations. There simply weren't enough of them left to make it worth his while. He would of course wipe them out when he found them but for now, searching every inch of the globe required too much energy it would seem.

That was their theory. Their only answer to the simple question: why aren't we dead?

It took them another hour before they reached the edge of the Glass Lands. Although for about a mile or so before hand the vegetation began to become scarce. There was a sense of grim death as they looked out over the barren landscape. The earth had turned to strange grey sand, stretching out as far as they eye could see. It was a never ending dessert without even rocks or dead trees. It was a massive grey sandbox with heavy dark clouds looming over head. They spent a while starring at it, hesitating and unwilling to risk bogging down in some strange quick sand.

"Who wants to see if we sink?" Ulrich asked looking at the group.  
"Can we vote on this?" Chip asked feeling a little uneasy.  
"Ulrich! Rock, paper, scissors!" Aelita requested.

She lost.

Quickly dismounting, the pink haired woman edged closer to the gray sand. Her horse didn't seem panicked, always a good sign. It was only with the very tip of her toe that she dared touch the sand, instantly flinching away afraid that it might burn her. Nothing happened however, prompting her to try again. Kneeling down, she decided to see what the sand felt like in her finger. It was softer than any other sand she had encountered; rubbing it a little she suddenly realized what it was.

"Ash." She announced, before rubbing away the upper layer to reveal thick blue glass. "There's a layer of ash covering over the glass."  
"Hm…" Ulrich dismounted and took a couple of steps forwards before placing a foot on the ground. "The horses are going to love this."  
"So are we." Aelita took a handful of ash before allowing it to be blown away in the wind. "Nothing can grow here and there's going to be no water until we reach the other side."  
"A walk in the park then…" Chip summed up looking out into the great expanse.

Slowly, they decided to set off into the dead desert. The horses were more than a little uneasy as they placed their hooves on the flat and somewhat slippery surface. Their riders dismounted, choosing to lead them on foot for the first few miles so as to let them get used to it. On the upside, at least X.A.N.A was unlikely to look for them somewhere that they couldn't possibly survive.


	9. Chapter 8

**Sorry about what happened to the layout, here's hoping it's fixed! That's for the reviews!**

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Aelita held on to her reins as tightly as she could. The wind was blowing directly into their faces now, she couldn't tell exactly how fast it was but she knew that she was having trouble sitting up straight. If that wasn't bad enough, the ash covering the ground was blown into their faces making it impossible to see without goggles. It was a good thing that whoever had packed their bags back at the camp and thought to include gas masks, not only for the humans but for the horses as well. They wore them tightly against their faces, to prevent any ash from entering their lungs.

Without the wind, the ash was unpleasant enough. The horses would often kick some up and somebody behind would end up getting a face full. Aelita was only too aware that breathing too much of the ash in would have been dangerous especially in the volumes they were talking about. There was the equally unpleasant thought of just what had created all of it. Marseille and some of the surrounding villages had been here at one point, now they were nothing more than dust and glass, as were the people who had lived there…

Aelita felt her daughter grip her around the waste a little tighter as there was yet another gust of wind. She placed a hand over the child's smaller ones trying to comfort her. As brave as the children were – and they were, oh so brave to live and dare to smile in a world where any day could be their last – they had their limits. Walking through a desert of toxic ash and glass in the middle of a storm was downright terrifying for them. The children rode behind the adults so as the shelter them as much as possible from the storm.

She cast a glance to Ulrich, he was struggling as much as she was with Chip holding on for dear life behind him. Kai, with the ever-resilient Yama were a little ahead of them.

"We can't go on like this!" Aelita tried yelling as hard as she could to get the message across to Ulrich.

She wasn't too sure that he heard her. He was probably capable of guessing though as he stopped his horse. He dismounted picking up Chip and placing him on the ground next to him. The boy struggled to stand up partly due to the winds but also because of the pain in his muscles caused by spending too much time in the saddle. Aelita, Kai and Marie soon joined him. He tried to speak to them but with a mixture of the wind and his mask, his words were muffled and indistinguishable.

"Say what?" Asked Kai removing his mask.  
"Idiot!" Yelled Aelita shoving it back onto his face. "Listen, we need to set up camp here. If we use some of the sheets, we might be able to wait this out."  
"I think I got that…" Marie replied.

A couple of minutes later, Ulrich and Aelita were doing their best to hammer some stakes into the ground. It would have been so much easier if it were dirt. However, it could have been worse. Although the glass shattered, it did so in such a fashion which allowed them to wedge the pegs in. They struggled to raise the tent in the wind. Eventually it took all five of them to finish the job struggling all the while. They were forced to leave the horses outside, after all, there wasn't enough space in the tent for them.

The tent was too small for their number; it was meant for about four people. Still, it was better than being blown away outside. After a few moments, they even dared to remove their gas masks. Aelita let out a sigh, she felt completely exhausted. She longed for sleep, simply to curl up in a ball and be able to drift off would be nice…

"You guys look really old…" Chip remarked looking at the two adults.  
"What?" Ulrich asked with a confused look on his face.  
"Your hair's all gray…" Marie chuckled.  
"Huh?"

Aelita laughed slightly before brushing her old friend's hair causing some of the gray ash to fall off. He looked rather surprised, before running his hands through it himself and removing the powder. They all did the same, trying to remove as much of the substance as they could. It wasn't pleasant to say the least, it stuck to their clothes, their hair and their skin leaving them looking like pale grey ghosts. Ulrich did his best to shovel the remaining ash away and outside of the tent without letting anymore in.

"How long do you think that storm's going to last?" Marie asked snuggling up to her mother slightly.  
"Impossible to know." Ulrich replied listening to the whistling wind. "It could be an hour, it could be a week."  
"Personally, I wouldn't mind if it blew on for a little longer. I quite like the idea of a sleep." Kai declared lying down.  
"Yeah, well you're lazy." Chip replied looking down at the older teen.  
"No. I'm practical." He replied before coughing slightly. "Since I'm here, I had might as well sleep because there isn't anything else productive to do."  
"Sure there is!" Marie insisted.  
"Like what?" He asked opening one eye to look at them.  
"Like haircuts…" Aelita replied with a large smile.

She knew all too well that the kids didn't like haircuts. Even although it was a comparatively rare occurrence, they almost always argued and put up a fight. She wasn't too sure why, usually changes in routine were welcomed with open arms. Maybe it was because they were required to sit still for more than a few minutes whilst she tried not to hurt them with the scissors and give them at least decent cut. By far the worst was Marie… Indeed as soon as the mention of haircuts reared its head, she began to look a little uneasy.

Before she could flee once more however, one of Ulrich's strong hands grabbed her physically picking her up before dropping her off in her mother's grasp. Aelita chuckled slightly as her daughter struggled for a few moments trying to escape. After a few moments, the pink haired woman tickled the girl slightly causing her to replace the fighting with laughing.

"Not fair!" She managed after the tickle-attack had ended.  
"What I'd call not fair is you causing trouble for your mother." Ulrich replied.

Marie eventually calmed down enough to allow her mother to brush out her hair. Aelita was no hairstylist, she contented herself with simply snipping it so that their fringes no longer got in their eyes and their hair was about neck length. It allowed them to see clearly, avoided such unpleasantries as hair in eyes or mouth whilst keeping their necks warm. Still, it was better than not touching it and letting it grow out of control.

Marie was surprising good this time and didn't put up much of a struggle. It only required a brief glare from Ulrich to convince Chip that perhaps a haircut wasn't such a bad idea. The floor became littered with strands of pink and blonde hair. Kai wasn't allowed to escape either, not that he usually protested. Tonight especially, he seemed to be far too tired for any arguing. Outside the wind continued to whistle outside. They would likely have to dig themselves out in the morning…

The kids didn't seem to mind the noise however, it wasn't long before they were all curled up and sleeping in the corner of the tent in an attempt to keep warm. Aelita watched them fondly as she cut Ulrich's hair. It warmed her heart to see them sleeping peacefully, seemingly without a care in the world.

"They're cute like that…" Aelita noted watching them.  
"Yes." Ulrich agreed. "They can just shut themselves off from the world around them."  
"I'm not so sure about that but they can learn to live with it."  
"Aelita?"  
"Mm?"  
"There's somewhere on the other side of the desert, we can't stay there but I'd like to visit it."  
"Odd request from you Ulrich…" Aelita noted frowning ever so slightly. "You're normally the one saying we can't stop."  
"Believe me, I'd rather not… It's just- That's where we buried Yumi."

Aelita paused. His honesty took her somewhat by surprise. Usually, Ulrich kept quiet where Yumi was concerned. He even got snappy if other people mentioned her, such was the hole is his heart she had left. She had initially believed that he was somehow trying to forget her, not in the literal sense; more like trying to forget the space that was now empty in his life. Going back to where he had laid the woman he loved to rest ten years ago seemed to be going contrary to everything that he had done previously.

"Do you think that would help you?" She eventually asked him.  
"I don't know…" He replied looking away for a moment. "I wish I could say one way or another. I thought that it would get better but it's not… I miss her so much…"  
"I know you do Ulrich. I miss her too." Aelita hesitated a few moments as the memories of all of her old friends threatened to bring tears to her eyes. "I think we should go. If nothing else, I'd like to say goodbye to her. I never really had the chance."  
"Thank you…"

Aelita managed to nod before looking away. Ulrich did the same. She couldn't recall ever seeing him cry these past 10 years. In fact, the last time she could recall seeing him shed a tear it was the day of Kai's birth, joy seemed to bring them to him more easily than sorrow. Still, right now, she suspected that some of his pent up sadness had found a way to release itself, in the form of a single drop of water trickling down his cheek.

It had been a long time since Aelita Stones or rather Belpois had last hugged Ulrich Stern. Years doubtlessly… It took him a moment but eventually he returned the gesture. Neither of them said it very often but the comfort they brought each other was immeasurable. They were friends just as they always had been, friends who had both somehow survived this apocalypse and were now travelling together with their children to whatever lands lay beyond this desolation.

It seemed impossible but here they were both still alive…

_Aelita held on to her children for dear life as they were swept increasingly far downstream, by the torrent. She used all of her strength to keep their heads above the water and prevent them from drowning. Both were in shock and clung to her desperately. Jeremy was also on her mind, as well as X.A.N.A; she kept on looking behind her to see if either or both were still following. She couldn't see either anymore._

_She couldn't have said how long they were swept away like that or what distance they covered. All she knew was that by the time the current slowed and she was finally able to struggle over to the bank with her children, she was barely able to life her head. She ensured that they were out of the water, safe on dry land before pulling herself out to join them. Lying on her side, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She could vaguely remember falling asleep in the cold and fearing that she might not wake._

_But she had. She awoke dry and warm, on a cart being pulled by a horse. There was a group of at least 100 people heading down a small trail through the forest heading towards the mountains. She groaned slightly trying to pull herself together. A sudden thought struck her, where were her children? Sitting bolt upright, she found them sitting at the foot of the cart chatting with a slightly older Asian-looking boy; they noticed her and instantly broke off their discussion and came running over to her._

_"Mom!" They cried rushing over and giving her a hug.  
"Thank goodness you're alright!" She held both of them tightly delighted to see that they were both alright.  
"You fell asleep!" Marie told her before turning to look at the passing crowd. "These guys picked us up!"  
"Did they?" Aelita asked looking around at the refugees. "Who's your friend?"  
"Kai Ishiyama." The boy gave her very slight bow._

_**Ishiyama**… Kai Ishiyama, of course the name meant something to Aelita. After all, she was the godmother of a child bearing that very name. Her blood froze for a moment starring at the boy in front of her. He looked to be about ten and had all the hallmarks of a child who had had a rough life; he was filthy, his dark hair was a mess and his skin was already decorated with quite a few scratches. Could this really be the child of Yumi Ishiyama and Ulrich Stern? Still alive out here in this dying world?_

_"Kai-" She muttered, lowly wondering whether or not to question the child any further. "The son of Yumi Ishiyama and Ulrich Stern?"  
"Who are you?"_

_Before the surprised boy had had a chance to reply, Aelita found the blade of a rather sharp katana pressed against her neck._

_Without daring to move her head, she glanced at the blade's owner who was walking along next to the cart. She recognized his eyes more than his face that had become hard, belonging to the survivor that he had become. Yet his brown eyes still held a vague flicker of the kindness that she knew them to have. Despite the fact that he was currently threatening to kill her, Aelita found an overwhelming joy take over her as she recognized her old friend._

_"Ulrich!" She let out quietly to avoid him panicking and slicing something vital. "It's me… Aelita."  
"Aelita?" His eyes widened and almost instantly the weapon was back in its sheath. "Should have guessed it was you…"  
"How come?"  
"You know anyone else with pink hair?"  
"Asides my daughter? No." Aelita paused as something else occurred to her. "Where's Yumi?"  
"Yumi…" Ulrich muttered leaving a long pause. "She's dead Aelita."_

The following morning, things were far quieter… The storm outside had ended. Just as they predicted however as soon as they opened the tent ash poured inside. The group struggled outside to find their horses still very much present and alive, all be it covered in gray powder. A few minutes later, they had set off for the place which Ulrich had pointed out on their map


	10. Chapter 10

_**All I can say is sorry for the delay. Several months is quite some time... So here's a big chapter! I hope to get back to a more sensible updates. Sorry again!**_

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"Proper land!" Cried Kai leaping off of his horse onto the earth.

Aelita watched bemused as Ulrich's son jokingly kissed the ground. Marie and Chip giggled in response. She understood how he felt, nobody was upset at leaving the Glass Lands and returning to grass and forests. It had taken almost a week but at last they were out. Departing from the never ending dunes left them with a feeling of hope and release which seemed a little strange to them. There was the feeling that they might just make it after all…

The only one without a smile on his face it would seem was Ulrich but that was hardly unusual. He looked out to the hills in the distance gravely. She knew what he was thinking about, the same as always: Yumi…

"Not far now…" He muttered looking off into the distance.

Not far meant another three days ride. Fortunately, the return of forests and water allowed Kai to demonstrate his hunting skills and for them to fill their gourdes with water again. They stopped early on the first day to allow the horses time to graze and regain some of their energy. It was pleasant to be able to walk along and breathe the air without being forced to wear a gas mask. Aelita wondered how many people had struggled across the dessert; how many had tried and failed?

They reached where Ulrich had buried Yumi all those years ago late in the evening. It wasn't quite what she had been expecting although just what she had been expecting she didn't know… The group found themselves riding into the ruins of an old castle, deserted for many years… It sat atop a hill overlooking a valley and in the distance the Mediterranean sea could be seen. It truly was a beautiful location.

Kai became notably more subdued as they entered the courtyard. He was only five when he had last set foot here. Still, the place in his mind was synonymous with the death of his mother or rather the moment when they had said goodbye for the last time… His eyes fell upon his father, why come here of all places? It brought them nothing but sorrow and painful memories; memories which they had tried to bury and keep hidden for many years now.

"I remember this place…" He whispered under his breath as a chill ran down his spine.

It was probably no bad thing that they had reached the castle, darkness would be upon them in a little while. They needed somewhere to set up camp and this place seemed as good as any. The walls had long ago crumbled and now, only piles of stone stood in their place. Nature had long ago overrun the building; vines climbed over the walls, the grass was long and untidy, Aelita even spotted a doe which made a quick escape upon seeing them. The group stopped, dismounting from their exhausted mounts.

Ulrich continued walking however, he was heading over to an ancient olive tree which lay in the center of the courtyard. Kai's gaze followed his father yet he remained firmly planted where he stood. He had turned a rather pale color and looked more than a little unsettled by being here. Aelita was about to head over to him and try and say something to comfort the young teen when he seemed to shake off his stupor and return to tending the horses. Aelita turned to her young son and handed him her horse, he'd understood and Marie was already trying to take Kai's mind off of the situation by telling him some funny anecdote about the life cycle of the common fly.

Aelita trusted her children to be able to occupy the teen for some time, if his mood degenerated any further she would intervene, it was wishful thinking to think that the boy's father would do anything, she doubted he was aware of his son's distress.

Still, Ulrich was her primary concern. His moods were a little more unpredictable than his son's. His melancholy either provoked depression or it had been known to make him nasty and that was something she wanted to avoid at all cost. Never before had he raised a hand against any of them in anger but he could get snappy bordering on sulky, much like had as a teenager.

She slowly approached taking care to give the young man some space. He was kneeling down just in front of the olive tree. It took Aelita second to see what he was looking at with such sorry eyes. Just in front of him, was a small wooden cross which looked like it had braved the elements, yet it was still standing.

"I didn't think it would still be here." Ulrich confessed without turning around to see her. "There's grass here now..."  
"You picked a beautiful spot." Aelita told him looking around. "Yumi would have liked it."  
"Yes... Yes, she would have." Ulrich placed a hand on the ground before him. "Aelita, can you leave me some time to myself? I need to think."  
"Of course..." She turned around and began to head back over to the children before pausing. "Don't forget Ulrich, your son has feelings to."

He didn't respond. Although she was certain he had heard her and if she was honest with herself, she knew her words hurt him. Yet she didn't regret them, Ulrich was one of those people who occasionally needed a verbal slap. She tried to avoid hurting him as much as was physically possible but he had to realize that his behavior had consequences on them all; least of all poor Kai. Leaving Ulrich to his own thoughts. She headed back over to the children.

She was rather impressed to see that they had already began to get the fire ready. Tonight would be rabbit and pigeon with some mushrooms that Marie assured them were edible. Once Aelita might have complained, now she was simply grateful that they had anything to eat at all. She sometimes forgot just how capable the kids were, circumstances had caused them to mature faster than most. Although they maintained a jovial innocence, she didn't doubt for one minute they all three would be capable of surviving in the wilderness.

Kai's head hung low as he sat down on a small rock watching the other kids work. Aelita placed a hand on his shoulder, he looked up to see her and she could instantly tell that he was only just managing to hold back tears. It surprised her somewhat but then she remembered that he was only 15 and this was the place where he had buried his mother all those years ago.

"It's okay." She told him in a soft voice.  
"I'm fine!" He assured her almost a tone of anger in his voice.  
"No you're not Kai." Aelita replied looking the boy in the eyes.  
"I am!" He replied shaking his head. "It's just, why'd we have to come back here?"  
"You know as well as I do that your father needs to get rid of all of his pent up pain caused by Yumi's death." She told the teen in a soft voice. "And so do you."  
"At least I don't take it out on you guys."

The pink haired woman let out a sigh. She decided that she had better leave Ulrich's son to his own devices for a while. Instead she chose to help her children, she aided her son in skinning the rabbit, it's fur could be used to make cloves, a hat or even a small scarf in order to keep them warm. Long ago, they had learned not to waste anything. Marie had already finished plucking the bird's feathers and had placed on a small spit over the fire, cooking it slowly.

Both children were markedly more quiet, doubtlessly they had sensed that this was neither the time nor the place to be mucking around. Aelita cast a glance back over to where Ulrich was, he was still there, kneeling down before his love's grave. He could be there for a while... This was promising to be a fun night...

"Hey mom?" Chip's voice drew her attention.  
"Yes, Chip?" She asked in a warm voice.  
"Where exactly are we going?" The boy questioned in a low, almost scared voice.  
"West." His mother replied adding the rabbit to the spit. "We've got to find somewhere safe. Somewhere where there's no X.A.N.A"  
"Is there anywhere like that?" Marie asked coming over and looking up into her mother's eyes.  
"Not even X.A.N.A can be everywhere, we'll find a place and we'll be safe." She assured her children. "And you know what the first rule of survival out here is?"  
"Never give up." They both chimed in unison.  
"That's right."

That night's diner was rather more quiet than usual, Kai said nothing, he contended himself with eating a couple of mushrooms and one of the rabbit's legs. Slim pickings as always but better than starving. Aelita allowed her children to snuggle up to her one on either side. She got a single large blanket and placed it over all their shoulders. Within, a few moments, both were once more fast asleep.

Aelita watched them warmly but with a heavy heart. In no small way did both her children remind her of their father and therefor of his loss. She was beginning to come to terms with the fact that she would never see him again. He could be dead or simply in hiding at the other end of France, in any case, it was unlikely that she would ever lay eyes on the man that she loved once more... Still, she had to live, she had to watch out for her children so that they might grow up.

"The last time my father ever held me like that was here about ten years ago." Kai declared in a shaky voice.  
"Yumi..." Aelita's voice trailed off as she noticed tears in the boy's eyes.  
"We buried her here." She decided to let the boy talk. "I remember crying all night, dad cried to... Then when morning came, it's like he didn't want anything to do with me anymore."  
"That's not true..." She told him, her voice firm in it's resolution. "Your father loves you Kai but Yumi was everything to him, he's never learned to live without her."

The teen looked away from a moment. Aelita said nothing thinking back to the day he was born, the entire Lyoko squad had been there, even William. It had been a major turning point in all their lives. Back then, they had seen it as the definite end to their days as the Lyoko warriors and the beginning of their new adult lives. Of course, they had been catastrophically wrong and the first of their children had been dragged into a terrible war, a war which had cost him the life of his mother and the heart of his father...

She could tell that the teen was crying now, uncharacteristic of him. His breaths had become rapid and shaky. She remained at a distance, judging it best to leave the boy some space. She had never seen Kai in such a state, unlike his father he hid his pain with good humor and a warm smile, as such, she was a little more unsure about how to comfort him.

"All I can remember of my mom..." Kai sobbed his head hanging low before looking up to see her. "Is her smiling at me as she bleed out!"

Aelita paused unsure how to react. Neither Ulrich nor his son had ever told her just how Yumi had met her end. The most she had ever gotten out of her old friend was that it was X.A.N.A had been responsible. She knew that the young Japanese woman had been killed in the escape from Paris and evidently her remaining family had managed to bring her body here and bury her. Other than that, she had no idea that Kai had personally witnessed his mother's death...

"You can't go on remembering your mother like that. Think back, I know you can remember the good as well."  
"How would you know?" Kai asked clenching his teeth as he turned to look at his father behind him.  
"I know that keeping it inside just burns, burns until you can't take it anymore."

The old Lyoko Warrior sat down next to his son. The teenager looked at his father with wide eyes, red from crying. Aelita watched surprised, she hadn't noticed Ulrich come over and she certainly hadn't expected it to be so soon after initially stopping by his love's grave. She hadn't seen the two really interact in a very long time, perhaps the last time she had seen the two behave really like father and son had been when Kai was still a boy, before all this catastrophe.

Since that day, the two of them had always remained distant. Physically and emotionally, they would often avoid each other and never once had either confined in the other. When they did interact, it was only when strictly necessary and usually in as few a words as humanly possible. She had given up long ago trying to reunite the two of them, yet tonight it looked as if finally they might be about to do so themselves.

"I miss her dad." Kai confessed tearfully.  
"So do I..." The boy's father replied in a low voice. "But your mother wouldn't want you to remember her as she was when she was dying. She'd want you to remember the good things."  
"I can't..." Kai informed him weakly. "All I see is..."  
"Don't you remember the time we took you to the park? You chased a swan so far into the water, your mother had to jump in and save you?"

The teen nodded slowly. Aelita listened with interest. She could vaguely remembering Yumi telling her the anecdote a few days after it had taken place, as a result of the swim both mother and son had caught a terrible cold. Ulrich continued with his stories from the past, each of them were only a minute long yet they seemed invested with some special power which conjured up for a few moments the image of a smiling or laughing Yumi Ishiyama.

What happened next truly shocked the young woman watching. A still sobbing Kai, rested his head against his father shoulder and even more amazingly, the man hesitatingly placed an arm around his son's shoulders pulling him a little closer. The boy closed his eyes, accepting the gesture of affection and the comfort which it offered. Silence settled in between them, if the teenager was still crying, he was doing so without making any sound. Ulrich's tired eyes met hers, she nodded discretely to him; letting him know she was happy at his decision.

"You once asked me how Yumi died." Ulrich spoke to her later once his son was asleep. "I never told you because I didn't want to remember but if you want, I'll tell you."  
"Do you want to?" She asked speaking in a quiet and hushed voice.  
"I think I need to get this out of me, same as Kai did."

Aelita didn't respond, instead she slowly got up from where she had been sitting. Her children were both lying on a small blanket which shielded them partly from the damp of the ground. She gave each of them a peck on the cheek before going to rejoin her friend. They stopped by one of the walls looking out over the valley. In the very distance, they could make out the Mediterranean sea. It was actually quite beautiful on a calm night such as this, with the silver moon rays down on the water and the stillness of the air; she could happily have forgotten about their troubles for a few moments.

"It's nice here isn't it?" Ulrich asked her his voice unusually soft.  
"Tonight it sure is." She replied looking out over the view. "It must be nice in summer..."  
"It was..." The man's voice trailed off for a couple of moments as he starred out into space.

She didn't complain about his sudden silence. Choosing instead to sit down next to her friend and look out over the water. She was willing to give him all the time that he needed to gather his thoughts together. Despite the chill in the winter's air, the night's beauty calmed her slightly. As she looked up at the stars, she found herself wondering if somewhere out there, in the vast world there were others looking up at them and wondering if they were the last humans. Maybe Jeremy was out there somewhere, wondering about his wife and children...

The tranquility of the night was disturbed by Ulrich who let out a deep sigh which sounded as if it carried the sorrows of the world.

"The day we lost Yumi. We'd already run into a shed load of monsters. I hurt my leg pretty bad..." He pulled up his left trouser leg to reveal a grizzly scar which made her wonder how he still had all his limbs. "I could hardly walk, we had Kai with us and we were being chased..."

Aelita couldn't help but think back to the incident which had separated her from her husband. She knew how struggling with young children made it virtually impossible to outrun any of X.A. monsters. She also knew that the day of the invasion, kankrelats, krabs, megatanks and bloks had poured through the streets like a never ending flood. Thousands had rampaged through Paris, that and the collapse of the city infrastructure had lead to the single bloodiest day in the war; if it could even be called such a thing.

In all her years of wondering in an attempt to escape the seemingly omnipresent A.I, she had only ever met a handful of survivors of the Paris massacre. Ulrich and his son were without a doubt the two who had been closest to the initial attack and ironically both had come out relatively unscathed, at least physically, as she knew only too well, it was the wounds under the skin which truly caused the damage.

"We came to this shed. There was a gap between in and the ground, I dunno probably something some animal had dug out." He attempted to illustrate the size with his hands, it couldn't have been more than a couple of feet. "We were going to hide, Kai slipped under first then I followed but when it came to Yumi, X.A.N.A caught up. Yumi told us to stay hidden."

Aelita painfully pictured the scene in her head, although she wasn't sure whether she would still want to by the time Ulrich had finished his story.

She remembered that frightful day very vividly, as if it had been scarred into her memory, it had been into most people. Jeremy, who had never completely let go of Lyoko still kept track of any potential X.A.N.A activity, it went without saying that until that summer's night there had been none. Then, the computer had gone off; beeping an eerily familiar alarm. It had awoken the super-genius from his sleep. What had especially marked Aelita had been the fear in his voice, the sear terror as he had realized what was going to happen and worst of all, that they couldn't stop it.

"They came out of nowhere, dozens of monsters and this guy- a kid, probably about Kai's age but he was wearing Lyoko gear." Ulrich continued on with his story.  
"What?!" Aelita asked, this was the first time she had ever heard mention this stranger. "Another Lyoko warrior?!"  
"You want to know what I think happened?" Aelita blinked at him a couple of times, still a little taken back by this revelation. "I think some kids found the supercomputer, just like we did. I think they turned it on and I think that somehow, they brought X.A.N.A back and I think he defeated them. You'd know if that were possible."

Aelita looked down at her feet for a moment, she scratched her chin thinking. It was possible, she'd never really actually spent much time wondering how X.A.N.A had come back, trying to think of a way to defeat him seemed rather more important. If Ulrich's story was correct and she really had no reason to doubt what he said, then it certainly would explain a lot. It brought the terrifying realization of just how easily they could have ended up being the ones to unleash the apocalypse.

"It's possible, they could have awakened a small part of X.A.N.A which we didn't destroy, some hidden back-up program. Without me, they wouldn't have been able to deactivate any towers. X.A.N.A could have been growing in power for months!"  
"Figures..." Ulrich muttered bitterly. "This guy was Xanafied that's for sure."  
"Do you want to go on?" She asked him, looking into his eyes and reading all their pain.  
"I have to." He replied through clenched teeth as if telling the story was causing him physical pain. "Whoever he was caught Yumi, she couldn't escape but put up one hell of a fight. I guess, X.A.N.A must have guessed we were in the area cause that kid- No... Monster, he kept on calling out for me to show myself."  
"Did you?"  
"No..."

Ulrich's voice suddenly broke and so did he. All his coldness, the distance and barriers he had tried to put between himself and those around him simply collapsed and the young Ulrich Stern whom she had known and cared for as a teenager returned. With him, came the tears. At first, it was a single drop of water which escaped his eyes, followed up by another and another, before Aelita could properly understand what was happening, her old friend was crying rivers.

"Oh Ulrich..." She spoke softly but unsure what she could say to ease his pain.  
"I couldn't do anything, if I broke my cover. X.A.N.A would have found Kai. She was in pain- And I couldn't help her-" He managed to sob out. "He counted to ten, I didn't come out. So, he slit her throat."

The Lyoko Warrior fell down to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks. Aelita hesitated for a few moments, the true horror of what he had just said settling in. Shaking slightly from the shock, she knelt down in front of him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He returned the gesture holding her close. She didn't say anything and soon found herself joining him in tears. She couldn't have said how long they stayed there, sobbing quietly. Thinking of their friends but also for some strange reason the joy that they had shared with them all those years ago.

The pink haired woman was surprised but grateful that the children hadn't been woken up by all of the sudden commotion, their exhaustion at the end of each day did have that one very real benefit, they would almost always sleep through the night fully. She closed her eyes for a couple of moments, she took some comfort from the sound of the strong, steady beats originating from his heart. Just as he did from feeling her against him.

"I never said it..." Ulrich spoke softly into her ear. "But thank you, having you here, it means a lot to me. I don't feel so alone."  
"You're never alone." She promised him still remaining close. "We're going to make it out of this. All of us, you, me and the children."  
"When you talk like that, it reminds me of the good old days." He declared warmly looking up at the stars above him. "Aelita- Do you believe in Heaven?"

Aelita paused for a moment, she found herself having to ask herself the question as she truly didn't know the answer : did she believe in the afterlife? She hadn't really spent much time pondering the question, perhaps because she couldn't see an immediate way to prove it one way or another. There was only one way that she knew of that would allow them to know for certain and unfortunately there was no coming back from there. Jeremy didn't believe in that sort of stuff, he was a man of pure science, she was somewhat more open-minded however...

"I hope so." Was the most honest answer she could come up with.  
"I hope so too..." Ulrich replied quietly.

They didn't say anything else.

The next morning, the small group was getting up and ready. They all took advantage of the situation to say a last few goodbyes to Yumi. Aelita put her arm around both of her childrens' shoulders as they did so, neither of them could really remember Kai's mother although they had met her, they had been too young to recall her. No words were spoken, accept from maybe "goodbye". The lack of an exchange made it somewhat easier to bare.

After that, the group saddled their horses ready to set course for well- They didn't know where they were headed, away from X.A.N.A was all they could hope.

"Please tell me that's not rain..." Aelita muttered looking up at the dirty great rain clouds overhead.  
"Actually, I think it's brightening up." Ulrich declared.

The pink haired woman starred at her friend for a moment, blinking a couple of times unsure if she had heard him correctly. He starred back at her before asking his horse to walk on. She contemplated him for a moment before smiling to herself and looking back sadly at the grave. _Thanks Yumi, I think he needed that..._ She thought to herself before following their little group.


	11. Chapter 11

The snow had fallen thick and heavy that winter, covering the land in a thick white powder. In places, the water had frozen solid. Most of the wildlife had fled, moving further south. Trees lay bare as they awaited the spring for their leaves to return. For several days now, the temperature had dropped a fair way beneath freezing and a strong northerly wind blew chilling to the bone all of those who couldn't find shelter.

Darkness had fallen now, causing the temperature to plummet even further. A pair of blue eyes looked out through the window to see the white powder falling from the Heavens above. It was without a doubt beautiful, one of the slightly more common natural phenomena which brought a huge amount of joy to the children. Without a doubt, they would be playing in it again tomorrow. Yet, the young man knew that the ice had a much more sinister side to it. How many would die this year in the cold? How many would get desperate and end up falling into X.A.N.A's clutches?

His mind ended up coming back to the same old event, the same old faces, looks of pure desperation, his own helpless cry... They stung at his heart like daggers. The man placed a hand against the the window, it was freezing to the touch. He could make out his own reflection in the glass and found himself wondering if those who he had loved and lost would still recognize him if they saw him today.

"I'm getting ready for the speech. It's the same every year..." He spoke quietly, the room was empty but then he wasn't speaking to be heard by anyone actually present. "You'd probably find it funny, the idea of me giving annual speeches. Ten years ago, I would have been the last person to be addressing a crowd."

He paused for a moment, listening. All his ears picked up was the sound of the wind blowing through the trees outside. He let out a slight sigh before heading back over to his desk and sitting down in his chair. He stayed there for a few minutes simply starring up at the ceiling lost in thought. He checked his watch, he still had a fair few minutes before he was due to give his speech. Letting out a sigh, he pressed the play button on his CD player.

The sound of a violin and a piano playing slowly calmed him slightly and eased some of the pain which had been weighing down on him. The man ran a hand through his thick blonde hair and closed his eyes. If he was honest, he would have been much happier spending his night by himself listening to the music rather than addressing the others. Still, it had to be done and oddly enough he knew that at the end of it he would feel far better. He always did.

He remained in silence and darkness for a good few moments. Alone, with only his thoughts for company before there was a sudden knocking at the door. He spun his chair slightly to face, the entrance. He already knew who it would be, they didn't need his invitation to come in but they always waited for a it.

"Come in." He called out.

The door opened to reveal a group of two men and a woman. He smiled recognizing his old friends. The small gesture wasn't enough to fool them however and he knew it. They knew him far too well to not know how lonely he felt at this particular moment. Maybe that was because they all felt the same way, the two men perhaps slightly less but he knew that the young woman did. After all, she had been through exactly the same thing as he had; she too had lost almost everyone who was dear to her.

"You almost ready?" Asked the skinniest of the two men. "Everyone's gathered together."  
"Yeah... I was just thinking."  
"About the usual?" The dark haired woman asked.

He didn't respond instead getting up and looking out of the window once more. His eyes searched the darkness for a figure, he hadn't seen in many years and now felt he never would again. Sometimes, if he was especially tired or maybe just especially lonely, he would see her just for a second, standing out there and smiling wonderfully just as she had many years ago. His friends joined him a couple of moments later, the woman placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You can't change what happened." She told him softly. "They wouldn't want you to be unhappy."  
"I know that..." He replied with a faint smile thinking back to their smiling faces. "Doesn't make it any easier though."  
"Look, if you don't feel up to-" The taller of the two men began.  
"No. No, it's fine." He cut his friend short. "I'll do it."

Without saying another word, he left his office. He spent most of his days in the refurbished town hall. He couldn't complain, it was clean, practical and served his needs well. The one thing he would say was that it left him somewhat isolated from the rest of the community. Still, his friends' visits always served to keep him from becoming totally isolated. Were it not for them, he would probably have locked himself up in his lab becoming the resident mad scientist, not unlike the people who had gotten them into this fine mess in the first place.

They left the town hall and cross the snow covered streets of the small village they called home. This place had never been particularly busy even before the apocalypse, it was a small village in southern Aquitaine that had up until a few years ago never seen much action. Now, they called it home. In the fields in the distance, he could make out some cows, sheep and goats sleeping. A rural place beyond a doubt but this was home now.

They headed over to the town church, the door was already open. A woman with dark skin was waiting for them, she offered the group and especially, the skinny blonde man a warm and loving smile. They entered the building, which was surprisingly brightly lit. Both rows were jammed full of people of all ages; ranging from the relatively newly born to two near centenarians. All had turned out for tonight's speech and were waiting patiently for him to give it to them.

He stepped up onto the alter and turned to face them. Behind him was a wall that they had created, decorating it were literally hundreds of pictures of those that they had lost. They had been put up there by what remained of their family, friends and loved ones. Each was a painful reminder of yet another casualty of the war. His eyes paused for a few moments, resting upon an all too familiar woman with her two young children, just next to her was a picture of a young man with a little boy on his shoulders... So many were gone now...

He turned back to face the crowd, they looked up at him with faces full of expectation. He held back a sigh, gathering his courage, the first few words were always the most difficult.

"Thank you all for coming." He declared speaking into a microphone to be sure that all would hear him. "First of all, I would like to welcome both Thomas and Lucy to the community."

In the crowd, two young couples smiled proudly. Both their children had been born since the last meeting, some three months ago. That made a grand total of 7 newborns this year. Their group was growing steadily, he hadn't checked the recent statistics but he knew they were nearing the 700 mark. Each new birth brought pure joy to their community, each child born here represented a new hope, they were proof that life could triumph even under X.A.N.A's reign. Children gave them enough courage to continue to believe that they could still win this fight.

"Secondly, thanks to everyone for working. I know it's not been easy but we're really getting somewhere. It's been tough and God knows... We've all lost something." He left a couple of seconds blank whilst everyone thought to those left behind. "But we're still here. Tomorrow, is Christmas day, let's not forget that. The good news is that we've got more than enough turkey to go around."

A light-hearted cheer erupted from the crowd causing him to smile. It had been a good year. The silos were full and they had constantly exceeded their food quotas. It had been rough for a few years, with rationing becoming necessary but thankfully those days seemed to be long gone. Preparations had been made for the traditional Christmas festivities and the town was even somewhat decorated. For the first time in many years, a festive feeling was beginning to settle in.

"As always though, I'd ask that we have a few moments' silence." A somber mood settled over the crowd. "For those that we have lost and those who we don't know where to find."

The group all closed their eyes. Thinking back to their dead or simply those who were still unaccounted for. The vast number of people here had stumbled across the safe heaven by pure chance. They had no idea how many other survivors roamed in the countryside attempting to avoid X.A.N.A's forces. They had seen the state that some who had been struggling to keep alive were in when they finally made it to the town.

Everyone had someone that they had lost. Hence all the pictures. Family or friends, they all thought back to them in silence in the church. Some had seen them die, some simply didn't know what had happened and others had been separated. It was his case, as he thought back, he prayed for the safety of that angelic pink haired woman and their two children...


	12. Chapter 12

_**Thanks for all the reviews! **_

_**/**_

"Come on Marie!"  
"I'm coming!"

The young teenage girl followed her older friend. He would keep on glancing over his shoulder to make sure that she was keeping up. An unnecessary precaution, she had grown a fair amount these past few months and was becoming steadily more accustomed to life in the wilderness.

They had been walking for about half an hour now, going to a place where Kai routinely brought down deer. She was a little cautious as she walked along, she knew that he had set up some traps and although he claimed he could remember where each of them was, she would rather not end up with her foot in a snare. She could recall the teen once unintentionally trapping one of the guys in their old camp, he had had some choice words for the then young boy.

The exact reason for them heading out here was a mystery to her. Every time she asked Kai about it, he would simply smile knowingly and tell her that she'd see when they got there. Her mother knew, yet had also refused to tell her irritating the teen. As a general rule, they didn't keep secrets from each other, considering how heavily they relied on trust it was almost impossible to live in a situation where lies or half-truths were told. Still, she found herself out here on this strange mystery quest.

"Not much further now." Kai assured her, as they approached the river. "Careful!"

About half a mile downstream from them, she spotted a large brown bear. She had been told that once bears had been a rather rare sight in the Pyrenees but since the disappearance of most of the human population, their numbers had been steadily increasing and with it their boldness. It was with great humility that they shared their hunting terrain with the bears and wolves, they relied on a passive coexistence where neither bothered the other. That didn't stop either party from being cautious of the other, after all guns and claws were only too capable of killing.

Fortunately, the bear only raised it's head to look at them but didn't react. It was fishing, Marie had seen it before a mother but where was- She spotted it's two young cubs standing a little further back and watching intently as she fished. Kai smiled somewhat before crossing the river with her. It was shallow enough here for them to safely wade across.

The duo continued walking for another ten minutes before finally reaching a small clearing. Kai signaled her to stay put and disappeared for a few moments. When he came back, he was carrying a small puppy in his arms. It had what would be best described as a makeshift leather leash and collar around it's neck. Marie starred in awe at the small creature as it yapped slightly and wagged it's tail.

"Happy birthday!" Kai announced offering it to her.  
"Thanks..." She replied cautiously stoking the animal's head. "How did you know it was my birthday?"  
"I didn't." He replied with a shrug of the shoulders. "But you were born in July right? I'm guessing it's summer right now."

Marie looked up, the sun felt hot even in the shade of the trees. They had lost track of the date long ago, in fact, she wondered if she had ever known it. Here, for them, days meant little, all they really relied upon was how much daylight they had and how cold it was. They could tell the seasons apart quite easily. Marie could say with certainty that this would be the 11th summer since X.A.N.A's rise, she could barely remember it herself. She was only three at the time and her memories were all faint.

She looked down with a smile at the young pup. Although she wasn't an expert, she was fairly certain that it was at least part wolf probably completely. It scurried around a little unsure what to make of the two strange bipedal creatures currently admiring it. She had always liked animals, not that she'd had many at least not as pets; food was something else entirely.

"Thanks Kai. He's really cute." She declared picking up the puppy.  
"She." The teen corrected smiling fondly. "What are you going to call her?"  
"I dunno..." Marie picked the pup up in her arms and began walking. "How about Maya?"  
"Maya? Good name." Kai nodded approvingly. "Come on. Who knows, maybe dad will have taught Chip how to use a bow?"  
"My brother? Never in a million years!"

Kai laughed as a response. He agreed with her on that point. His father might be one of the last Lyoko warriors but he was no miracle worker and getting Christopher Belpois to shoot straight with a bow would require nothing less than God's intervention.

An arrow whizzed dangerously near to Aelita's head. Fortunately, it was traveling so slowly that she had had enough time to dodge it. The small shaft of wood struck a tree somewhere behind her but simply bounced off of it. A little started, she once more counted her blessings glad to still be alive before letting out a soft sigh as she realized where the shot had come from. Her son backed away timidly as he realized how close he had come to almost putting an arrow between his mother's eyes.

"Well, if you were aiming for your mother, I'd say not bad." She heard Ulrich's voice from the clearing. "If you were still shooting at the target, I think we should call it a day, don't you?"

The young boy nodded somewhat disheartened but his failure. Judging it safe to continue on, Aelita headed over to her son and old friend. By the looks of things, Ulrich's attempt at teaching Chip the art of the bow and arrow had failed rather miserably. When it came to sports, the boy took after his father; a rather polite way of saying that he was useless. They all knew it, least of all Chip himself and it often got the young boy somewhat down.

Today however, as the twelve year old turned around ready to go and do something he was good at, such as patching up holes in their clothes, Ulrich placed a hand on his shoulder. Chip looked up surprised; he had never been entirely comfortable around the Lyoko warrior due to a mixture of fear and respect and always felt as if the man felt that he was something of a waste of resources bordering on a nuisance. Christopher looked up at his mother's old friend, who smiled down at him reassuringly.

"For what it's worth." He spoke softly, in a kind voice. "I'd rather have brains than brawn."  
"But how am I supposed to hunt?" The boy asked in a quiet voice.  
"You'll think of a way. Another time, another place a kid like you would be considered a prodigy." Ulrich took a step back before looking around. "Why don't you try to find your sister and that son of mine? They headed off earlier and I haven't seen them since."  
"They headed towards the river, on the south-western trail." Aelita informed them.  
"Sure thing!" Chip was suddenly more enthusiastic. "See you later!"

The two adults watched with warm smiled as the boy ran off down one of the trails they had traced. The summer's warmth and the abundance of food here had done all of them some good. Of course, it was most noticeable with their children; they had all grown at least in an inch and had put on weight so they no longer looked as if they were starving, that and they were far more lively.

They had found this place around mid-spring. Having walked for miles, with little rest, they had feared that they would never be able to settle. The harsh winter had very nearly killed them, even now she wondered how they had survived. They had stumbled upon the pass in the Pyrenees just when they had been beginning to give up hope. Originally, they had decided only to stay temporally but as they had realized that X.A.N.A for some reason, hadn't discovered this particular part of the world or at least his monsters weren't rampaging through it, they had made this their new home.

With two huge mountains on either side, surrounded by woodlands full of wild animals; they benefited from beautiful views. They had made their camp in a clearing, slightly higher up on the eastern mountain, overlooking the entire valley. They had set up a couple of small tents, managed to find an abandoned wall and were even talking about trying to catch some of the local wildlife to see if they could try farming.

The one thing she would say was that it was hot here. At least at the moment, in the full blaze of the sun, they found themselves quickly roasting. Aelita and her children who were naturally rather fair skinned had initially suffered from rather bad sun burns fortunately now their skin was becoming used to the rays and had turned a bronze color. It didn't stop her from seeking out shade wherever she could find it. Which often lead her to sitting under an old oak tree; she quite liked it there especially if there was a nice cool breeze blowing through the long grass, it was incredibly soothing.

She had better off-load that night's meal first however. She placed a large cloth bag on top of a large stone which they used as a table. She was pleasantly surprised to see a fairly large collection of berries in a little wicker basket. Ulrich offered her a smile.

"Looks like we're going to have a nice meal tonight." He declared looking inside the bag. "Six eels!"  
"Yes, those traps Kai made really do work!" Aelita replied with a smile.  
"What are you going to do now?"  
"I think I'll finish fixing up a pair of boots, summer's not going to last forever." She reminded him. "You?"  
"Well, considering how many arrows your son broke today, I should probably make some more."

They both settled for the shade of the tree. It was important to keep your feet warm and dry in the freezing and wet weather, it prevented such wonders as frostbite and trench-foot. It had taken her quite some time to learn how to make boots, it was amusing how they had been forced to rediscover techniques which their ancient ancestors would have used. She was far from an expert, still it was better than having to walk barefoot. Next to her, Ulrich sharpened small stones or pieces of bone to form arrowheads or fitted feathers onto the shafts.

What she guessed was a few hours passed with them both working in relative silence. After a while however Aelita found herself closing her eyes, enjoying the sensation of the warmth. She surprised herself by realizing that for the first time in quite a while, she felt peaceful and perhaps more importantly, she felt safe. Even back at their old camp in the alps, there had always been one disaster or another; be it food shortages or X.A.N.A's forces drawing ever closer. Here, with just the five of them, she felt far away from harm. Dare she say it? She felt happy.

"What's taking them?" Ulrich eventually asked. "They should have been back by now."  
"They're probably just playing Ulrich." Aelita assured him.  
"Yeah, you're right." The young man got up and stretched.

Sure enough, by later that evening the kids had returned. There were no harsh words, no reprimands or even requests that they come back on time in the future. Those had stopped a while ago, so long as there was careful the parents had decided to allow their children to have a little more freedom. As part of that, they tried not to keep them on too short a leash.

Ulrich took the arrival of a puppy rather better than Aelita had initially thought that he would. He hadn't always been on very good terms with dogs and years of living with a mutt like Kiwi sure hadn't caused him to warm to them. Still, he barely said anything, even commenting that the new arrival could potentially be helpful when it came to hunting. Kai had found the animal wondering alone by the riverbank, he didn't know what had happened to it's pack or why it had been abandoned but had decided to take it in and offer it to Marie.

That night they sat around the fire, warm and full from their meal. They placed the basket of berries in between them, every now and then one of them would reach in and take a couple. They chatted and laughed warmly.

"If I got a job, it's because of your mother." Ulrich informed them glancing over at his old friend who offered him a friendly smile. "She put in a good word for me with the Subdigitals."  
"I remember." Kai marked a moment's pause, deep in thought trying to take himself back to times past. "Mom took me to see you guys."  
"Well, being the sound technician, I was never on stage preforming." The man replied scratching slightly at his beard. "Can't say it wasn't fun though."  
"What about you mom? Did you preform with the Subdigitals?" Marie asked growing curious.  
"Of course, I can't believe I haven't told you about this." She shook her head slightly. "I was the DJ. I even took part in some of their gigs when I was in school."

The teens starred in awe at their parents. It was rare for them to talk about their past and when they did the children certainly took advantage to question them as much as they possibly could. The adults smiled and answered all of their questions, not unhappy at being asked to think back to those happy times. It was a shame they had no photos or videos to show the kids. It would have been interesting to see how much of the old world they remembered.

It was a strange thought, the idea that one day, human civilization as they had known it could be forgotten. Kai was probably the youngest someone could possibly be and still have some valid memories of life before X.A.N.A and even he admitted that his memories were vague. Aelita knew that one day, she wouldn't be there and neither would Ulrich, Kai's memories would fade and with them, the old world would be more. All they could hope to do was leave another one in it's place for their children, one which hopefully would see them be safe from X.A.N.A.

It wasn't long after that they all settled down, it was warm at night so they no longer required covers. They preferred to sleep outside, in the open air looking up at the bright starry sky above them. It was to the sound of the crickets chirping that they fell asleep, warm with bellies full of food.

That night however, Ulrich found himself in the odd situation of waking up to find Aelita gone. He cast a glance around him, the children were all still sleeping soundly. He noticed that she had left a little note scribbled in the dirt : _gone lake_. Strange, it was unlike her to go for walkabouts. He had known her to do so back in school when she had suffered from some of her nightmares; more than once she had wondered off in the middle of the night, seeking long lost voices. Those memories of her old life hadn't troubled her in years, or so he thought. He lay there for a few moments listening to the sounds of nature around him, wondering whether or not he should go after his friend.

He let out a soft sigh as he got up and headed over to the horses. Bonaparte was missing. Figured. The old Lyoko warrior looked down to see a pair of curious dark eyes looking up at him. He smiled softly and patted the foal on the head, it had been born a couple of months ago. A surprise addition to their odd little family, Apple and Yama had become happy – as far as anybody could tell – parents. He decided against taking the horses, they needed their rest and some grass. He'd go one foot.

The young man cast the children one last glance, they were all still sleeping soundly. Maya was the only one awake, the pup was lying snugly next to Marie, its little eyes contemplated him for a moment before closing once more as it fell asleep. They would be safe.

He walked carefully along the trail which lead to the lake. It was only a short walk, about ten minutes if you were moving at a fair pace. Ulrich's eyes quickly fell upon, his old friend sitting at the end of a small pier. He contemplated her for a few moments, wondering what could possibly be going through her head right now. She was sitting there looking up at the large full moon lighting up the sky with a silver glow. For a moment, he considered turning back, content in the knowledge that she was safe but something stopped him.

He wasn't overly fond of the pier, it was rickety to say the least; years of being left with no maintenance had left it somewhat rotted away. Every step he took caused it to creek and whine, so much so that by the time he reached Aelita, he was certain that she had heard him. Still, she didn't turn around preferring to stir the water slightly with her bare feet. He stood there in silence for another few moments, trying to imagine what was going trough her mind and to adapt accordingly.

He failed to do so. Reading people had never really been one of his specialties, that had always been something that Aelita seemed to excel in. He'd always found it rather difficult to relate to other people. His little group of friends in Kadic had been the one great exception in his life, if he was honest he had felt closer to them than to his own parents. That didn't mean that he didn't still have a little trouble with people skills however.

"You know, usually sitting alone angsting is my job." He told her softly.  
"I'm not angsting!" She turned to look at him smiling slightly. "I'm thinking, there a difference."  
"Do you mind if I join you?" He asked raising an eyebrow.  
"Be my guest."

Aelita shifted to the right slightly to allow her friend to sit next to her. She watched as he sat down, chuckling slightly as he winced upon feeling the water temperature. It didn't bother her much, considering the cold temperatures which they had gotten used to in the Alps some slightly cool water didn't bother her. This must have been a favored vacation spot at one point, she could imagine boats out on the water and people swimming. Now, it was abandoned save for them.

"Nice night." Ulrich commented looking at the stars.  
"Sure is..." Aelita paused for a moment.  
"Are you unhappy?" Her friend questioned her.  
"No. The opposite." She replied with a smile, looking down at the water. "I'm happy."

Ulrich raised his eyes slightly puzzled. This wasn't the behavior he would typically have associated with someone who was happy. He could only speak with certainty for himself but when he searched for solitude, spent the nights by himself starring up at the sky or something similar it wasn't because he was happy that was for sure. If it was, Aelita wouldn't have spent the best part of six years going after him every night when he went on his usual walkabouts.

"Mind explaining?" He requested blinking slightly in confusion.  
"It's just-" She paused searching for the right words. "For the first time in years, we're safe. We've got food, there's no X.A.N.A, no gangs... Just us. I don't know. It's odd but safety seems unnatural."  
"Don't complain." Ulrich grumbled slightly not discontent with the calm.  
"I'm not." She shook her head slightly wondering how she could possibly explain. "It just feels like... This is it, we can start living again."  
"And your answer to this is to come out here by yourself?" There was some seriousness in his voice but mainly good humor. "Are you asking to be eaten by a bear?!"

Aelita smirked before playfully elbowing him in the ribs. Ulrich grunted slightly, smiling. He honestly couldn't say why he did what he did but without really thinking, he shoved the young woman off of the pier. She disappeared under the water for a couple of seconds before surfacing, she gasped somewhat shocked. He laughed as she spluttered whilst treading water. She whipped her wet hair out of her face before glaring at him. The young man had a hard time telling if she was amused, exasperated or about to kill him.

"What the hell, Ulrich?!" She spluttered.  
"Oh come on! It was funny!" He replied through his laughs.  
"Hilarious!" She spat out some water. "Now give me a hand out!"

He chuckled softly before leaning forwards and offering her his hand obligingly. Aelita took it, ensuring that she had a firm grip. It was too late that Ulrich caught sight of her malicious smile. His eyes widened abruptly as he realized what she was going to do. The pink haired woman pulled on his arm, taking advantage of his lack of balance to pull him with her into the water. He resurfaced a moment later gasping for breath, having had the wind knocked out of him. It was Aelita's turn to laugh as she splashed him.

"Now who's immature?" He asked her splashing her in turn.  
"You started it!" She replied hiding behind one of the posts of the pier. "You always were a kid at heart!"  
"Come here and say that!" He challenged her.

She replied simply by swimming away. Ulrich smiled for a few moments before swimming after her. The water wasn't too bad once you got used to it. It was a while since had been for a swim like this, well strictly speaking, he'd never swum in a lake in the middle of the night but it was the first time he had been for a leisurely swim in many years. He had to admit, it wasn't unpleasant. Much like Aelita, he too felt happy; perhaps more importantly, he felt free.

Not just from X.A.N.A but also from his past, true it still hurt to think back to Yumi Ishiyama but he no longer felt her absence everywhere that he went. He found himself able to think back to her without being struck down by the same unbearable pain which had haunted him for years. He could think back to the moments of joy and happiness that they had shared. For as long as he lived, he would never forgot the look of pure love she had given their son when she had seen him for the first time...

"Can you imagine what Jeremy would have said if he'd seen you push me in like that?" Aelita laughed slightly, ringing out her hair.  
"He'd have been hopping mad. He loved you to bits but he did treat you like a porcelain doll." Ulrich replied trying to pull a splinter out of his hand which he had acquired on the pier.  
"Better than you and Yumi always jealous." Aelita retorted in good humor. "Or Odd, always dating somebody else. I wonder if he ever found somewhere."  
"If I know Odd, he made it out and is flirting with every surviving girl he comes across." Ulrich replied thinking back to his old roommate.  
"Sure sounds like him." Aelita agreed.

It wouldn't take long for them to dry out and the coolness was welcome in these nights often a little too warm for comfort. A cry echoed through the night, it belonged to a wolf. It wasn't unusual to hear one howl. Ulrich just hoped that they didn't want their cub back... Then to his utter surprise, Aelita for reasons known only to herself decided to imitate the animal's cry. Placing two hands on either side of her mouth, she let out her own howl. Her companion starred at her incredulously and blinked a couple of times. She looked back at him blushing slightly.

"No more berries..." Was Ulrich's only reply.  
"You know I've always wanted to try doing that." She replied somewhat sheepishly.  
"Hm..."  
"Come on, you've never wanted to try howling with wolves?" She raised an eyebrow curiously.  
"I sort of went off of them when they tried to eat me that one time." He replied thinking back to the day he had first confessed that he had vertigo. "Besides, I'm no as insane as you."  
"I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer." Aelita turned away pretending to be offended.  
"Oh come on..." Ulrich played along. "Don't be mad... Would you take my arm princess?"  
"What?"

Aelita turned around suddenly to look her old friend. It wasn't so matter his request as the final word at the end which surprised her. She hadn't been called that in... Years. Not since X.A.N.A had returned that was for sure. Her old nickname brought back many a memory of their time on Lyoko and with the other members of their gang. There was a time, when Ulrich had frequently called her that, she wasn't too sure where the name had come from. She hadn't heard it in so long, she couldn't quite believe her ears.

"What did you call me?" Aelita asked a little shocked.  
"I called you princess." He answered with a slight shrug of the shoulders.  
"You haven't called me that since..."  
"Things are changing." He spoke in a soft voice and cut her short, offering her his arm.  
"They-" She let out a soft sigh before smiling warmly. "They sure are..."

Aelita accepted her friend's arm and began a steady walk back to the camp. Ulrich was right, things were changing but as far as he was concerned, she couldn't help but find that he was changing back to someone she was more familiar with. He no longer seemed like so much of a stranger to her...


	13. Chapter 13

**Thanks for all the reviews. I meant to publish this message last chapter but it didn't pop up for some reason. Anyhow, thanks!**

**/**

Chip gasped as the boar almost collided with Bonaparte. The horse reared threatening to unseat him. Still the boy's eyes remained fixed on the beast in front of him, its eyes were completely enraged and it had the right to be, after all, they were trying to kill it. He felt his grip around his home fashioned spear tighten. If it had been any of the others, there wouldn't have been a problem but he as usual in this sort of circumstance felt rather useless. It was fear which immobilized him as he looked into the animal's ferocious eyes. The young boy found himself wishing that he possessed the boar's strength and will-to-live, it certainly wouldn't hesitate.

An arrow shot out of nowhere hitting the animal in the side, it let out a piercing shriek before charging Marie who had fired the arrow. All around the animal, their little group rode trying their best to avoid being gored to death. As Apple was currently looking after her foal, Aelita was riding Hannibal whilst her daughter rode behind Kai on Yama. Despite the hit, the boar didn't appear to be weakened and tried it's best to attack the flaxen horse, fortunately Kai's horse was the fastest one that they had and out maneuvered him rather easily.

"This is getting dangerous." Ulrich noted riding over as he watched the boar charge furiously.  
"You can say that again." Aelita nodded in agreement. "Maybe we should let it go before someone gets seriously hurt."  
"I think you're right."

Suddenly the boar switched targets without giving them much warning. Aelita had enough time to spur her horse on, Ulrich however was less fortunate. Cobalt instinctively reared up almost vertically, unbalanced, the animal fell backwards as the boar collided with it. Although the horse was quickly up on its feet, the Lyoko warrior rolled across the dirt, stunned and dangerously close to a rather furious wild beast. His dark eyes looked up to see those of the boar, the animal charged.

Everything which followed was a blur, all Ulrich knew was that there was a sudden piercing shriek from the boar which suddenly fell to the floor dead, with a spear through it's neck. The young man sat on the dirt shocked and trying to catch his breath. He had been fighting X.A.N.A for years and more than once, he had starred death in the face but that didn't mean that he was used to it or didn't fear it. This had been another one of those close calls he would happily not repeat.

"Thanks Christopher." He eventually let out turning to the boy. "Where'd you learn to throw a spear like that?"  
"I dunno..." The boy replied perhaps more shaken than the Lyoko warrior.  
"Way to go Chip!" Kai and Marie rode over to congratulate their friend.  
"See, when you believe in yourself..." Aelita placed a hand on her son's shoulder and gave him a proud smile before turning to Ulrich. "Are you okay?"  
"Yeah." He chuckled slightly, trying to hide his fright. "Considering how long I've been fighting X.A.N.A it wouldn't have been a very dignified death, gored by an oversized pig."  
"Come on." Kai declared dismounting. "We'd better deal with this guy before the flies have him."

They had become rather well versed in the art of preserving meat. Ulrich had set up a fire for them to smoke the meat with in order to prevent it from rotting or becoming host to many an unpleasant bug. They could also use the animal's coat as a blanket in the colder weather or perhaps turn it into clothes in the future. For the rest of that afternoon, everyone was occupied with a task or a chore of one kind or another. Maya was especially excited by the presence of so much tasty looking food and bones, causing them to have to keep a particularly keen eye on the pup.

It proved to be worth it however, as later that evening, they were feasting on some boar meat and some strawberries. Aelita estimated that they would have enough meat to do them the best part of a week perhaps more. They all detested killing, although since the idea of starving was even less appealing, they made due.

"You did good Chip." Ulrich declared finishing his meal.  
"Thanks." The boy replied looking away slightly. "But I still don't like that sort of thing."  
"Well at least it wasn't _boring_..." Aelita's pun earned several pained groans from those around her.  
"That was so bad it could have been one of Odd's jokes!" Ulrich told her, she giggled slightly.  
"I know but it's one of those things where people's reactions are funnier than the joke itself." She replied.  
"Well pretty much anything would be." Marie grumbled as a response.  
"Come here you!"

The teenage girl laughed softly as her mother gently ruffled her hair. Ulrich smiled fondly before turning his attention outside. It was unpleasantly warm at the moment and making things worse was how close the air was. With the sky as overcast as it was, he was almost certain that it was going to bucket down sooner or later. He was rather looking forwards to it if he was honest. He turned around to see Aelita hand out three books, earlier that day she had made an exceptional trip to an abandoned farm not to far away, she hadn't found much but had brought back some books.

Sure enough, a few drops of water hit the top of their tent and before long it was an utter downpour. The sound was deafening. Still it didn't seem to bother the teens, Aelita lit a small oil lamp lighting the tent just enough for them to continue reading. Books were a rare commodity, Ulrich didn't doubt for a second that those books would do them quite some time and bring them a grate deal of amusement. Aelita smiled slightly before coming over and sitting next to him.

"What's going through that head of yours?" She asked him in a soft voice.  
"I'm going to get a shower." He declared.  
"Wh-What?"

Marie, Chip and Kai lifted their noses from their books just in time to see Ulrich disappear outside of the tent. Aelita turned back to them and shrugged her shoulders. They went back to their reading, naturally assuming that the Lyoko warrior had gone momentarily insane. For a moment, Aelita was tempted to join them but curiosity got the better of her and she exited the tent to see what was going on. Ulrich was standing under the rain with his eyes closed and his head tilted backwards slightly face to the sky. His arms spread out wide.

"What are you doing?" She was forced to yell to be heard over the rain.  
"Makes me feel alive!" He declared looking at her. "Washes all my worries away."

Aelita frowned slightly, unsure what he meant. She'd only been outside for a few seconds and she was already soaked to the bone. Still, she stayed out in the rain. The light oil lamp made a pleasantly warm glow inside of the tent, whilst in the distance the sky was periodically lit up by lightning. There was an almost permanent rumble of thunder in the distance. It did have a form of strange charm, she guessed, although for the moment she would rather be dry.

"Close your eyes." Ulrich instructed gently running his hands over her eyelids, shutting them. "Don't think, just feel."

She opened her eyes briefly to look at him, she raised an eyebrow telling him that she wasn't entirely convinced. He smiled encouragingly. She let out a sigh and did as he said taking a couple of steps away from him. In any case, she was drenched and nothing was going to change that now. The advantage of being soaking wet was that it became impossible to get any wetter...

She allowed her thoughts to drift away as if they were washed away by the rain and for a few moments, she felt blissfully non-existent. Her senses seemed to be heightened somehow; she could feel every single rain drop that hit her, she could have sworn that she could feel them also... The wind in her face had something of a liberating effect on her. She slowly began to understand what Ulrich had meant, the storm somehow made her feel- she struggled to think of the the correct word – free that was it.

"You know, this isn't a bad feeling at all..." She declared in a low voice, her eyes still firmly closed.  
"No." He agreed smiling and looking up the sky. "No it's not."

She became aware of Ulrich's presence in front of her but something prevented her from opening her eyes. It was strange but she wasn't all that surprised by what happened next. Her old friend bent over slightly and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead. She didn't react or protest. He said nothing before pulling away. She glanced up to see his dark orbs, filled with the kindness that had gone missing for so long. He looked into her eyes for a few moments before without saying another word going back into the tent. She spent a moment more out in the rain, looking out over the valley before joining the rest of her family.

It was later that night when Kai woke up. His half-awake eyes struggled to see in the darkness and he was only just able to make out the vague forms of Marie, Christopher and a little further away his father and Aelita. By the sound of things, the storm had stopped yet a low growl could still be heard. For a moment, the teen passed it off as the storm in the distance but then he realized the source was actually much closer. Curled up next to Marie, Maya had raised her little head and was growling pretty much constantly.

Kai's blood turned cold. Maybe the wolf cub was simply dreaming, although something about the stillness in the air which unsettled him. He propped himself up slightly and looked around. He was used to the dark, their only source of light once the sun went down was either a small fire (which they obviously hadn't lit in their tent) or the oil lamp. For a moment, he was tempted to light it but it occurred to him that if anything was out there, the light would without a doubt alert them to the fact that at least one of the tent's occupants was awake.

Thinking and acting quickly. He tried his best to crawl over to the two adults in order to alert them of the current situation. Hunting had taught him how to be silent when he moved and he did his best to avoid doing so much as breathing as he made his way over to his father. It struck him that he had never seen them sleep so close together. Ulrich had one arm wrapped around Aelita who was sleeping silently. They looked so peaceful, Kai almost regretted having to wake them up. Still, it had to be done.

He placed a hand on his father's shoulder. Almost instantly, the man's eyes shot open. He looked up at his young son, visibly rather confused.

"If this is because you've had a nightmare..." He began in a low and grumbling voice.  
"No, dad I think-"

He was cut off brutally as without warning several figures dashed into the tent. Ulrich instinctively jumped to his feet, causing all of the other occupants to wake up startled. He stumbled backwards as at least three of their attackers charged into him sending him crashing into the side of the tent. There was a snapping sound from outside as the pegs gave way and everything came crashing down on top of them.

There was a lot of yelling. Kai had no idea what was going on, he struggled to find a way out of the collapsed tent when suddenly a strong hand grabbed him and physically dragged him outside. He struggled attempting the shake off whoever had caught him. It was only after a few seconds of fighting that he realized that it was Aelita; she was stronger than he had initially given her credit for. She pulled him to his feet, it was then that he noticed that she had a gun drawn. The only problem was just who to shoot because Kai strongly doubted that she had enough bullets for all of their attackers.

They were being blinded by torches. He counted at least twenty men and women each armed with a rather large and nasty looking rifle. They were wearing some kind of body armor which made them rather difficult to make out in the darkness. Still, he could make out the basics; they were unnumbered by a look of professionals with guns. Oh and if that wasn't enough, his father was currently on the ground with at least four gun points pressed against his back and both Chip and Marie had also been grabbed.

"Easy there." A young man spoke to Aelita. "Put the gun down."  
"Who are you?!" She demanded her voice trembling with a mixture of shock and anger.  
"Friends." He assured her, spreading his arms wide.  
"Friend who attack us." Aelita raised an eyebrow before pointing her gun at him. "Stay where you are!"  
"Look, we don't want trouble." The stranger declared.  
"Then why attack us?" She snarled not even blinking.

Kai was amazed by the pink haired woman's courage. If they decided to open fire, there was no way she was walking away from this one. Making things even worse was the fact that both Chip and Marie were currently being held prisoner. It must have been almost unbearable for her to look at their terrified faces as they were surrounded by armed strangers. Still Aelita Schaeffer held strong, not budging an inch. The look in her green eyes told all those present that she meant business and was not to be taken lightly.

"Listen. Our job is to pick up stragglers like you and take you to Sanctuary." The tall stranger who seemed to be their leader informed them.  
"Using guns?!" Aelita narrowed her eyes slightly giving each of those currently pointing weapons at her.  
"Well to be fair, you guys are armed to." The other man reminded her gesturing at her gun. "I've almost had my head blown off by Wilders like you more times than I'd like to count, so you'll forgive us if we're a little cautious."

Aelita gave him a cold stare which would have caused most people to back off. The stranger didn't however, he remained firmly fixed where he was. Kai wished he could make out the man's features but with the darkness and the bright lights being shewn into their eyes like an overpowered search light, he was pretty much blinded. The teen cast his glance back to his father's friend in the hopes that somehow she would see a way out of this. Her face was unreadable.

"I don't suppose you're going to give us a lot of choice..." Came her eventual reply.  
"Yeah, I'm afraid not." The stranger took a daring step forwards. "See, we actually want to save humanity from X.A.N.A and the more of us left, the greater our chances of survival. So what's it going to be? Are some of the last humans going to shoot each other out here on this hill? Or are you going to put the gun down and let us rescue you?"

The night's air seemed to stand still as neither backed down. Kai sighed, considering where he was standing, if those gunners fired, the chances of them only hitting Aelita were rather few. Everything depended on her now and for the life of him, he didn't know what she was going to say.


	14. Chapter 14

_**Sorry for the delay! Thanks for all the reviews! Sorry for those who read this chapter earlier, there was a passage missing towards the end.**_

_**/**_

"Well this is great." Marie declared rolling her eyes.  
"What was I supposed to do?" Aelita asked her daughter. "Best case I'd have shot him and even then I doubt I'd have had the time before they shot me. Which would probably have ended up with Kai being shot also and maybe even you three. This is our only chance for all of us to make us out of this."  
"Ma-Maybe they weren't lying." Chip timidly suggested. "I mean, they've got vehicles."

That much was true, whoever had taken them had technology beyond anything they had seen in years which basically meant that they were using cars and electricity. Still, this was their first ride in a motorized vehicle in about ten years. They sat in the back of one of the vans, as their self-proclaimed rescuers drove them to some place which they had only referred to as "Sanctuary". They had been driving for what Aelita suspected was hours, although of course she had no real way of telling. They remained snuggled close together for a mixture of comfort and warmth. Maya had only recently stopped whining and had finally fallen asleep on Marie's lap.

There was a mixture of fear, confusion, concern and some deep pitted excitement from the part of the kids. It was true that being attacked in the middle of the night and crammed into a van hadn't exactly given them the best first impression of their rescuers but they had none-the-less shown themselves to have some consideration as they had offered them blankets and even some food, the latter which they had refused afraid that it might be drugged. Now, the children dared to hope that they would be brought to some safe place away from X.A.N.A's rule. The adults remained silently skeptical.

A while later, the van came to a stop. They heard some voices outside and the stranger who seemed to be the leader her opened the door. He offered them a slight smile. Ulrich and Aelita most certainly didn't return it to him. The kids were a little more open-minded after all, these were some of the first other humans they had interacted with in several months. Their parents were only too aware of how lonely they could become but this armed group didn't exactly fit their usual friend-bill.

"Feel like breakfast?" He questioned them giving the group a charming smile.  
"We'd might as well stretch our legs." Aelita replied somewhat blankly.

They exited the vehicle to find their new acquaintances were already busy eating. Kai's stomach rumbled not very discreetly, he looked up rather sheepishly earning an exasperated look from his father. Considering that all the others were eating, they might as well risk it... The odd little family group settled on a couple of rocks whilst the leader of their attackers went to get them some food. Ulrich looked around, this rather flat countryside was unfamiliar to him. He could make out the mountains where they had come from in the far distance, he guessed they were traveling north.

The stranger came back with a friend carrying several trays. Each had two pieces of bread with some jam on it, a fried egg and a bottle of what looked like apple juice. They starred at the food in a mixture of confusion and suspicion. Although the adults were able to recognize it, they couldn't quite believe what they were looking at. How long had it been since they had seen food like this?

"Bread?" Ulrich questioned looking at the stranger.  
"Yes. What of it?" He couldn't quite understand what he was getting at.  
"Bread need flour. Needs wheat. Needs fields." He replied narrowing his eyes slightly. "There's no way you could hide all that from X.A.N.A."  
"Want to bet?" The stranger smirked.

They frowned unsure what to make of it. Well, the kids sure knew. They were already tucking into their food. Their parents let out a sigh, all the food seemed to be coming from the same place... So, maybe it was worth the risk. They tentatively took a couple of bites. Each of which brought back fond memories of a distant time when bread and jam hadn't been such a rare commodity. Aelita couldn't help but think that things would be rather better if a croissant was somehow involved but maybe that was hoping for a little much. If there was one thing she'd learned it was to be grateful for what little they had.

After they had finished, the teens decided to stretch their legs. Whilst Marie and Chip contented themselves with a little walk and stayed within sight. Kai, headed over to the van where they had loaded the horses, he spoke softly to Yama. The horse snorted slightly recognizing it's rider. Ulrich and Aelita decided to see if they could get some more information from the leader of this mysterious group. He was quite a tall man, with dark hair and blue eyes. His clothes were in comparatively good shape indicating that he had either acquired them recently or had been able to take good care of them.

"Listen." Aelita spoke for the two of them. "We're sorry about last night but not everyone out here's nice. It's better to be caught by X.A.N.A than some humans."  
"I understand." The stranger replied with an honest smile. "You're not the first Wilders we've met you know. First with kids in a long time though."  
"Wilders?" Ulrich questioned raising an eyebrow.  
"It's what we call people living out here in the wild." He explained gesturing at the countryside. "Commutes, live in little community and Civils live in Sanctuary."  
"What is Sanctuary?" Aelita asked him increasingly curious.

The young man turned to look at them, for the first time he seemed to be studying the two of them from head to foot. God only knew what they looked like to him, most likely like two people who had been living in the wild for pretty much ten years, which of course they were. He spent a few moments simply starring at them, perhaps trying to decide if these two strangers could be trusted with their great secret. Eventually, he broke the silence :

"It's a village, used to be called St Martin." He explained to them sitting down on a rock. "Don't ask me how but some very brilliant scientists managed to create a barrier. X.A.N.A can't see us. There's about seven hundred of us now."  
"Sounds a little too perfect..." Ulrich muttered under his breath however the remark didn't escape the stranger.  
"I know it does." He agreed nodding solemnly. "But wait until you see it... It's a new chance for all of us. A chance to stand against X.A.N.A."

Ulrich and Aelita exchanged glances. How many times had they heard speeches like that? What they knew for certain was none of them had ever amounted to anything other than a fresh pile of bodies. X.A.N.A remained master of Earth, seemingly invincible. Once, Aelita had believed that it would be possible to create some kind of virus to vanquish him once and for all but years had lead her to change her mind and to believe that maybe the only way to survive was the stay out of the program's destructive path. For years, it had worked but now it seemed like for better or for worse, they were going to have to change game plans.

"Look-" He seemed to sense their hesitation. "I know it's hard to believe but you're just going to have to trust me on this one... My name's Patrick by the way."  
"Maya..." Aelita lied after a few moment's hesitation.  
"Alex." Ulrich also opted for a change of name.  
"And your kids?" Patrick asked looking over at the teens who were busy petting the horses.  
"Marie, the eldest is Kai and the youngest is Chip." Aelita replied giving them a fond glance.

Ulrich prayed that his son remembered not to introduce himself as _Ishiyama_ this time. They always changed their names, just on principal they hoped however that changing their kids' names wasn't required. After all, they had tried once and none of them had managed to keep up the charade more than three days. If nothing else, it was easier for the adults who also always struggled to keep up the codes names as instinct always caused them to use their childrens' real names.

Patrick nodded, acknowledging them. There was something about the young man which seemed vaguely familiar to Aelita. It was distant but she felt like she had seen his face before...

"We should get there by midday." Patrick informed him.

They got back into the trucks a few minutes later. They rolled for another few hours, although this time the journey was spent chatting. Aelita and Ulrich found themselves with the task of having to explain where bread and jam came from and how to make it. Their children hadn't had it in years, in fact, Aelita wasn't sure that Chip had even had any. It definitely made a change from roast "whatever they had killed that day". They wanted to know how these people could have shielded themselves from X.A.N.A, even Aelita had to admit that she didn't have the foggiest.

It still sounded too good to be true. Maybe they had been living alone, on the run for too long. Perhaps, living the lives that they had had removed all of their hope or maybe it had simply left them more realistic. Still, they couldn't deny that this was by far and away the most promising that they had heard of.

The vans pulled into a stop. They heard more voices from outside, it sounded like there were quite a few people waiting for them. The group attempted to find some way to see outside but unfortunately, were unable to do so. They were forced to wait, praying that they hadn't just been fooled and walked into some kind of trap. As Aelita had said, they knew from personal experience that some human survivors made X.A.N.A look positively mild in comparison, after all, all X.A.N.A did was kill you.

The door swung open. For a moment they were blinded by light and instinctively raised their hands to shield their eyes from the midday sun. Patrick was standing there, looking at them expectantly, he offered them a reassuring smile. Deciding that someone had better take the first step, Aelita climbed out of the van.

She found herself in the center of a small village. She glanced around quickly taking in the surroundings. This place was completely untouched, there was no trace of the devastation caused by X.A.N.A's rampage across France. In fact, the village seemed to be operating as it would have about 100 years ago; by which she meant that she had just seen a horse and cart go past carrying bottles of milk and there was no sign of cars other than those they had arrived in. There were about fifteen other people in the square other than the armed group which they had initially met. All of them were seemingly going somewhere but paused to look at the newcomers.

"Whoa..." Kai muttered looking around. "How does X.A.N.A not know about this place?"  
"See those antenna?" Patrick pointed at one on a building in the distance. "There's about twenty of them set up all around the town's perimeter, creating about a 100 km blind spot for X.A.N.A."  
"Impressive." Ulrich admitted admiring the town.  
"Sure is and you haven't seen half of it yet." Patrick declared before beginning to walk forwards. "Come on, first thing's first. I'm afraid you guys are going to have to have a medical exam."

They didn't argue, being aware of the dangers which in this small societies diseases posed. If nothing else, they hadn't seen a doctor since the apocalypse and could probably do with a check-up. The group followed Patrick whilst the others who had initially accompanied him dispersed, presumably going back to whatever their jobs were here whilst they weren't searching for survivors in the wilderness. They entered a small house, everything was spotlessly clean. Their guide seemed to know where he was going. He walked down a corridor and pushed open a door.

Inside was what could best be described as a small lab. An older woman with graying blonde hair looked up somewhat surprised to see them. She was busy examining a vile of pale liquid. Seeing them, she put it down. Her eyes came to rest on the newcomers, she had probably guessed who they were and as such offered them a faint but caring smile.

"Newcomers eh?" She asked coming over. "Oh my! Children too."  
"Yolanda, this is Maya, Alex, Kai, Chip and Marie." He introduced each of them. "As you can see, they've been roughing it and well- You know the procedure."  
"Of course." She replied before turning her gaze back to the small group. "It's really just a regular check-up. Who wants to go first?"

Aelita looked behind her to find that the rest of her family had stepped backwards, nominating her. She gave them a playful glare, earning some broad grins from them. She let out a sigh before stepping forwards. Patrick said that he was going to try and sort out their accommodation and disappeared.

It had been a while since Aelita had gone to the doctor's, not since giving birth the Chip that was for sure. Yolonda was right however, the check-up was relatively routine. Height, weight, eyesight... She had forgotten how unpleasant it was to have a stick placed in your mouth so that the doctor could look down her throat and he couldn't help but gag. A blood sample later and she was tasked with filling out a simple form. She answered it truthfully, well almost she left out any information about her past as the daughter of Franz Hopper or a Lyoko Warrior.

"You're all a little under weight." She frowning as she looked at the scales which Ulrich was standing on.  
"We've been eating more than usual." The young man replied stepping off.  
"More than usual doesn't necessarily mean enough." She informed him. "You could do with gaining a few pounds, all of you. Other than that, you're perfectly fine."

A couple of minutes later, they were free. Well, relatively at least. Patrick was waiting for them outside. He instructed them to follow him. Not knowing what else to do, they did so. As they walked along through the streets, they saw more and more faces. Different people, all hard at work. Some were fixing roofs, others were repairing cars, at convoy of at least seven carts went by each of which carried a crates full with fruit and vegetables of various types most of which they hadn't seen since the beginning of the apocalypse. They paused as they passed by the school and to their utter amazement saw at least twenty kids of various ages, hanging around in the courtyard. All of whom instantly looked over to see the newcomers.

Everyone who saw them, stopped and smiled. It felt as if they were being greeted, hopefully that wasn't just an impression. The kids stopped to look at the school, it was the first time in many years that they had seen some people of their own age. Patrick assured them that they'd have time to see them later and that the school had several teachers and was more than capable of welcoming three more.

"Here we are." He announced as they stopped just outside a cottage. "Home sweet home."

It was an old building without a doubt, it had to be a little over a mile from village itself but it made up for that by it's picturesque location : it was on a slight hill, overlooking the village and surrounding countryside. There was a small water which stood still, despite the waters from the passing stream. It looked like it had been unoccupied for quite some time, as the roses outside the windows had grown out of control. The teens were delighted to find their horses calmly grazing in a field just opposite the house.

They entered the house and found it to be practically untouched. There was an old oak table and chairs siting in the middle of what they guessed to be the living room, with a small fire place. Adjacent to that was a small country-style kitchen. It wasn't all that spacious but instead felt rather homely. Aelita brushed her fingers against one of the surfaces, there was a thin coat of dust but considering that the building probably hadn't been inhabited in quite a few years. There were even a few ornaments and books left on the shelves.

"I'm afraid we haven't been able to get the electricity back up and running." Patrick apologized before walking over to a tap. "You do have working hot water and gas though."  
"Seriously?" Kai rushed over and turned on the water. "I haven't seen a working tap since I was a kid!"  
"You still are a kid." His father reminded him, coming over. "Thank you."  
"You're welcome." Patrick replied with a smile. "There's food and basic supplies already in the cupboards. If you ever need anything, there's always someone in the town. Tomorrow, I'll give you a tour and maybe the kids can go to school if they want. Try and remember what it was like. Until then, I'll give you some time to yourselves."

Ulrich nodded in agreement before shaking Patrick's hand. Aelita did the same. The young man left, leaving them to themselves. They explored the old house, it was a small building on two stories. Upstairs were three bedrooms and a bathroom, whilst downstairs were the living room, kitchen, toilet. It was more than any of them could have hoped for. What was more, the food that Patrick had told them about was bread, meat (beef as far as any of them could tell), some fruit and vegetables... It wasn't far off of what they would have eaten before this whole apocalypse.

That night, Aelita stepped out of a warm shower, the first she had had in many years and into a pair of pajamas which had been left for her. She dried out her long hair slightly before something caught her attention. It was her own reflection in the mirror. She found herself realizing how much she had changed in a few years, her long hair made her look much like what her mother once had, although her face was somewhat more angular but that might just have been malnutrition. What struck her more though was the darker color of her skin and the small white scars which decorated her skin from old injuries. She let out a slight sky as she ran what was left of her right hand through her hair and went back into the living room.

The scene which awaited her felt somewhat unreal. Ulrich, Chip, Marie and Kai were sitting at the table contemplating a board of Monopoly. By the sounds of it, the old Lyoko Warrior had just finished explaining the rules to them. Presumably the game had been left over by the house's previous occupants. Smiling slightly, Aelita joined them sitting in between both of her children.

"I've explained the rules to them." Ulrich informed her handing her the wheelbarrow.  
"The last time I played this game, it went on for a week!" Aelita laughed thinking back to their game back in school.  
"Didn't we end up calling that one off?" Her old friend asked a little uncertain.  
"Yes. After a week even Jeremy and Odd were climbing the walls." She chuckled slightly thinking back to it.

Despite the risk of the game going on for an eternity. They started to play. The kids were quick to catch on and soon, Aelita was pretty sure that they had formed a secret pact and were working together in order to defeat their parents. Still, she wasn't going to say anything. It felt somewhat surreal to be sitting around a table lit by candles with their bellies full of good food. Still, she wasn't about to start complaining.

They played for about an hour but at four yawns from Kai, they decided that enough was enough and that it was time for bed. The kids brushed their teeth whilst Aelita and Ulrich ensured themselves that everything was locked up and secure. There was a silence here that they weren't quite used to; in their old lives there had always been the sound of the city around them and even in the wilds, the sound of beasts stirring in the night had kept the night alive. This place was strange, trapped between society and the wilderness. They would get used to it, if there was one thing these years had taught her it was that where survival came into play they could adapt to pretty much anything.

It had been decided that Kai and Chip would share a room, seeing as Marie was getting older and needed her privacy. Aelita stopped off at her daughter's room first, it was the smallest with only a little bed by the window, a little desk and a wardrobe. Her daughter had already settled under the covers and was the best part of asleep when she came over carrying a candle to light her way.

"How's it feel to be back in a bed?" Aelita asked her eldest child.  
"Strange." The girl replied her voice sleepy. "It's all mushy... I think I can get used to it though."  
"I'm sure you will." She declared smiling softly before kissing the girl on the forehead. "Goodnight honey."  
"Sleep well Marie." Ulrich spoke maintaining a respectful distance from the doorway.  
"'Night mom, goodnight Ulrich." The girl muttered almost asleep.

Next stop was the boys' room. Aelita took care with the candle, she would never cease to be amazed at just how much light even one could give off. She found her way over to Chip's bed, the boy was busy struggling with the covers which had somehow become tangled. Smiling softly, she helped him and tucked him in. The blonde boy gripped the edge of his sheets slightly, something seemed to be on his mind, there was no denying it. As his mother, she had a sort of sixth sense when it came to her childrens' well-being.

"What is it Chip?" She asked him softly.  
"Every time we get used to some place, we move on." The boy mumbled quietly, looking up at his mother. "I'd like to stay here."  
"Well, we'll have to see about that." Aelita spoke softly but firmly. "It sure seems okay but you know that we have to keep our guard up."  
"I know..." Chip muttered pausing for a moment before offering his mother a smile. "Goodnight."  
"Goodnight." She replied giving him too a kiss on the forehead. "Goodnight Kai."  
"Sleep well!" The teen replied.

Ulrich said his goodnights to both boys before heading to his room. Aelita followed, she found him leaning on the windowsill looking out over the countryside. He had opened the window and was starring out at the night's sky. She joined him. The stars were shining brightly in the sky and in the distance, they could make out the street lamps from the town. Lights, humans... It had been a while since Aelita had seen them. She knew that they were there and that they were real, yet somehow she couldn't quite believe it.

"So what do you think?" She asked her friend.  
"It seems... Almost too good to be true." He replied without taking his eyes off of the distance. "I'd like to believe it though. What about you?"  
"We need to keep our guards up." Aelita repeated the words she had spoken to her son. "Until then, the jury's still out for me."  
"Agreed." Ulrich nodded solemnly. "I guess only time will tell."

Aelita agreed. Although this place looked promising enough, they had both been around the block enough times to know that appearances were deceptive. Today's friend might become tomorrow's enemy if the situation suddenly changed, hence their reluctance to give away their real names. For the time being they would be Alex and Maya, strangers who had somehow survived with their children. Maybe, one day they would reveal who they really were but not anytime in the foreseeable future.

"I'm tired..." Aelita declared yawning. "You?"  
"Shattered." He replied honestly turning back.  
"This will be the first time I've slept in a bed in years." She confessed lying down at looking up at the ceiling above her. "Not since-"  
"Yeah... Same here." Ulrich paused for a moment, hesitating slightly. "Do you want me to take the couch?"  
"Why?" She asked raising her head to look at him. "You're not going to try anything, are you?"

Ulrich shook his head. No. Never.

The last time he had slept in a proper bed had been the night that everything had changed. He preferred not to think back to the that night for obvious reasons... Still, he found being back in a bed to be rather less strange than he had initially expected. His eyelids felt heavy and before he even knew it, he was drifting off into a deep sleep.


	15. Chapter 15

**_I would like to apologize for the HUGE delay with this chapter. Still, it's a long one. Thanks for the reviews, I'm always grateful for help and advice. Sorry again for the delay._**

**_/_**

_The world was on fire. Everything around her was burning. Why did this all seem so familiar?_

_Aelita looked around, her eyes fell upon a building she recognized only too well... The factory. How many times had she and her friends run down this bridge in order to stop a X.A.N.A attack? They had always been there, except for that one day... One time that they hadn't been there, just once and look at what had happened... Something here was different however, the city was alight, even the factory itself was ablaze. For some reason, she found her eyes lowering themselves to look at the ground. The young woman's blood instantly ran cold, a mixture of horror and fear struck her as she recognized an all too familiar body._

_"No..." She let out in a single breath._

_She knelt down by the side of the blonde haired man that she had loved so much, gently turning him over so that she could see his face. His round glasses were broken and he appeared somewhat aged to his wife but there was no mistaking who it was, nor was it possible to miss the bleeding hole in his stomach... A small trickle of blood was flowing out of his mouth. Please no... She begged to some superior force. He seemed heavy and unresponsive in her arms._

_"He's dead, Aelita."_

_Aelita's eyes widened as she heard a metallic voice, standing not too far away was a man that she knew all too well. He looked at her with his dark eyes filled with a coldness that she had never seen inside of them before. Something was very wrong here... She looked down at the man in her arms and brushed some of his blonde fringe out of his face. She wasn't an idiot, she had seen enough bodies to know when she was faced with a corpse... Still, there was something in her which made it difficult to let go of her love. She starred down at him, wishing for a smile to somehow magically grace his face once more..._

_"He's dead." The other man repeated his earlier statement coming a little closer.  
"What's going on?" She asked looking up but still unable to let go of the body. "Where are we?"  
"The factory, back where this all began." He replied showing no sign of pity or emotion.  
"Why-" The beginning of a sob prevented her from speaking any further. "How did this happen?"  
"This is inevitable."_

_A cold and metallic quality had abruptly added itself to the man's voice, distorting it somehow. She looked around, there were more bodies now... She recognized all of them, some she had known well, she called them family and others less so but all of them stung at her heart. Shaking from head to foot, she stood up placing the body down by her feet. Her eyes kept on flickering from face to face, corpse to corpse... Her mind spiraling as an ill feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. __**This can't be happening... It's got to be a nightmare!**__ The woman struggled to convince herself._

_"This can't..." She stood next to the young man. "This isn't real."  
"X.A.N.A won. He had won from the moment that your foolish husband reactivated him, from the moment he was even created by Franz Hopper." The man replied fixing the desolation with his cold eyes. "This is and was always inevitable."  
"No. I don't buy that!" She snapped her pain and horror turning to anger. "If we can just get to Lyoko..."  
"Then what princess?" He asked stepped a little closer to her. "You know better than most that a return to the past won't bring anyone back. Not Jeremy, not Yumi, not the kids..."  
"The kids..." Her voice drew quiet with dread. "Oh no... Please don't say that- No. Not them..."_

_The young man nodded, telling her to look a few feet away. Her green eyes fell upon two small bodies of a young blonde haired boy and his pink haired sister. They looked so peaceful, like they were simply sleeping... By their side was a young boy of Japanese origin, he had his arms around them as if he had been trying to protect them. All three had a small hole on the left side of their bodies, right through their hearts. The mother remained frozen in place, unable to move. Tears, slowly trickled down her cheeks. _

_Shaking, she took a step forwards followed by another before collapsing on her knees next to them. She starred at them, her eyes wide but her mind strangely blank as if it couldn't quite process what she was seeing. This was so wrong... They shouldn't be- They couldn't be... Abruptly, she broke down in tears allowing herself to fall forwards and embrace her children. For a while, everything around her seemed to drift away and become only a backdrop. All that mattered was that her children were dead. They were dead and they weren't coming back._

_"This isn't right..." She cried through her sobs.  
"__**Right**__ and wrong are illusions." The man behind her replied. "All that matters is what __**is**__."  
"What are you talking about?!" She snapped as her pain and sorrow were briefly replaced by anger. "Can't you talk sense?! Our children are dead!"  
"Nothing you can do will bring them back." His voice seemed to soften slightly._

_Aelita starred at the young man for a few moments. How he was here unscathed was beyond her comprehension. Then, she noticed that he was crying. Tears were pouring down his cheeks, although his facial expression showed no traces of pain or sadness. She starred at him for a few moments not understanding. Unsure, she took a step towards her old friend. He didn't move, his eyes remained fixed on her as if they didn't even register the death surrounding them._

_"You can't stop this from happening. X.A.N.A will win." He told her his voice regaining it's cold and metallic quality. "X.A.N.A has won."  
"What are you-?" She stopped suddenly._

_Without warning, the man darted forwards with almost impossible speed and grabbed her wrist. She let out an involuntary cry of pain as the pressure he applied felt as if it might be capable of shattering her bones. She struggled for a moment trying to pull away but it was no use, his iron grip would not release her. Growing angry, she tried to be a little more forceful and kicked him a couple of times in the shins. Her actions seemed to be like the buzzing of a fly to him, if he felt them at all. In any case he would not let go._

_"Ulrich stop it! You're hurting me!" She informed him growing slightly desperate before looking into his eyes. "-No..."_

_Pure and simple terror crept over her as she looked into her old friend's eyes. His dark orbs were now replaced with the cold and merciless eye of X.A.N.A. A cruel smile slowly traced itself on Ulrich's lips. No wonder he had been so cold in the face of all this death- Actually, maybe there was more to this than she had initially assumed. She had never seen it before on anybody who was xanafied but he was still crying. Tears flowed down his cheeks silently, marking a stark contrast with the rest of his expression._

_"You cannot stop this Aelita." He spoke his voice now echoing fully like someone under X.A.N.A's influence. "No matter what you try. X.A.N.A will always be victorious. It is the fate of all lesser beings to crumble beneath their superiors."  
"I'm never going to stop fighting you X.A.N.A!" She spat venomously, narrowing her eyes. "No human will! We'll fight until we die!"  
"You're already dead Aelita." He whispered lowly into her ear._

_He released her suddenly almost causing her to fall backwards. She didn't take her eyes off of him, expecting an attack. Yet none came. He straightened himself and took a step backwards away from her. She fixed him without understanding. Ulrich's - or should that be X.A.N.A's? - expression had gone back to being blank, as if it were carved from marble; making it impossible to read him._

_Then, a drop of liquid hit her shoe. She looked up to the sky, was it raining? No, there was smoke up there and ash but no clouds. A sudden tingling feeling in the pit of her stomach caused her to look down. Her eyes widened, horror taking hold as she saw a growing puddle of blood forming on the ground by her feet. Trembling, she brought her hands to her stomach. There were several holes - bullets not lasers if she had to guess – each of which was leaking vital red liquid. She let out a slight gasp, falling to her knees as if seeing her injuries had suddenly triggered them to hurt._

_Still, she found herself looking up to see Ulrich Stern, he stood next to her, the fire from the burning sitting behind him cast a sinister shadow over her face. He looked down at her through the pitiless eyes of X.A.N.A._

_"You can't stop this princess. No matter how hard you try-" He declared raising his voice ever-so slightly. "X.A.N.A will always prevail. You will always die."_

_That was the last thing that she heard before everything suddenly faded to blackness..._

Aelita awoke with a jump in a cold sweat, breathing heavily the sound of her own panicked scream echoed through her ears. The memories of blood and death were etched in her mind and for a moment, she honestly believed she was back outside the factory, with seven bullets in her stomach, her family dead and her last remaining best friend under her arch-enemy's control. She looked around terrified, it was her room she was looking at, she had grown to recognize it yet the images she had seen remained plastered behind her eyelids.

"Aelita? What is it?"

Ulrich's voice was soft and concerned but still carried some of his tiredness. He propped himself up to look at his friend currently sitting bolt upright in her bed. She turned to look at him, her eyes wide with fear. It only took him a few moments to figure out that she had suffered from a nightmare. This wasn't exactly a new thing for him, back in the early days at Kadic she had suffered from many such attacks, most of which were linked with her past life. She had often tried to hide them in the past but Sissi always liked to brag and he had heard many stories of how the strange pink haired girl would wake up screaming...

He hesitated for a moment, unsure what to do. She was breathing heavily and visibly in a state of shock. He cautiously reached forwards and placed a hand on her shoulder. She flinched as if he had somehow hurt her, her eyes were wide and puffy as tears threatened to erupt from them. There was a true terror in them which her friend hadn't seen in quite some time, even in the blackest of days, Aelita had always been brave. Whatever had scarred her, must truly have been horrific.

"Ul- Ulrich..." She muttered her voice shaking and slightly broken. "It's you-"  
"Of course it is." He replied softly offering her a gentle smile.

Without giving him any warning, she pressed herself against his chest. Slightly taken back, he looked at her pitifully for a couple of seconds before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. She was crying softly; warm tears trickled down her cheeks as she continued to shake slightly from a mixture of fear, shock and the hushed sobs mixed with the occasional hiccup.

"Shh..." He hushed her softly. "It's alright... You're safe."

She continued to take deep gasps of air, in an attempt to calm herself back down. Ulrich gently ran a hand through her hair. He felt her relax somewhat, her grip on him loosing as she allowed herself to be comforted. She shivered slightly, still under the effects of whatever horrors her mind had conjured up to haunt her dreams. There was very little he could say or do to make her forget what she had seen, all he was really capable of doing was being there to let her know that she was safe and that none of what she had witnessed in her nightmare was real.

After a few minutes, she seemed to have calmed down. Ulrich pushed her away slightly so that he could look into her eyes. They were red and a little puffy but the tears had stopped. Good.

"I always hated seeing you cry..." He confessed.

That wasn't to say that he took pleasure in anyone else's tears, he wasn't sadistic. Aelita's tears however had never ceased to upset him. He believed that it was likely due to the fact that she was such a kind and empathic person. Somehow her own feelings seemed to wash off on those around her : when Aelita laughed, those around her at least smiled, if she was even remotely unhappy (although she almost always tried to hide it) anyone with her would feel her sorrow.

"You feeling better?" He asked her in a soft voice.  
"Y-Yes..." She muttered in a shaking voice. "I'm sorry."  
"Hey!" The young man raised his voice slightly putting both of his hands on either side of her shoulders, forcing her to look him in the eyes. "Don't be. Would you like some water?"

She nodded, still visibly shaken up. Ulrich gave her a worried look which he attempted to hide behind a warm and comforting smile before heading out to the kitchen.

Over the past month, he had learned where everything was stored in their little kitchen. Allowing him to quickly get a glass from one of the cupboards and take it to the sink in order to fill it. As he did so, he couldn't help but cast his gaze through the window and into the would outside of their house. The sky was beginning to lighten in the far distance, it wouldn't be long until sunrise. A brand new day, he no longer dreaded what they might bring. His wondering attention caused him to overfill the glass, spilling some water. He quickly turned off the tap, pouring the excess water into their tomato plant.

He let out a tired sigh and ran his hand through his thick hair, he would have preferred an non-disrupted night's sleep but there was no stopping things such as nightmares, considering everything that they had seen in the past, it was probably to be expected from time to time. He himself suffered from them more than he cared to admit, it wasn't uncommon for him to wake up in a cold sweat having relived some event he would much rather have left behind him.

As the young man headed back to his room with the glass of water, hopefully Aelita would have calmed down. He was almost there when something caught his attention, the door to Kai and Chip's room was open just a fraction. Two faces peered nervously through the crack at him.

"Shouldn't you two be in bed?" He asked trying not to sound aggressive whilst remaining firm.  
"What's the commotion?" Kai questioned stepping out of him room slightly before being blocked off by his father.  
"Nothing. Aelita just had a bad dream, that's all." The boys' eyes widened slightly as they exchanged a glance. "She's fine now. Get back to bed."

For a moment, Ulrich thought that they might protest or argue but they seemed to catch onto the rather sensitive nature of the situation and rather than kick up a fuss, they both quietly returned to their room. Pleasantly surprised, the Lyoko warrior made a mental note to thank both of them later. First thing was first, he had to make sure his old friend was alright or at least on the road to recovery. Had it been later in the morning, he would have made her some coffee or something similar but for now, water would do.

He quietly pushed open the door open. Aelita was sitting on the edge of the bed, she pulled her legs a little closer to her body, rocking back and forth. She stopped however as she noticed his presence offering him a weak smile in a poor attempt to cover her own distress. He returned the gesture, waking over and handing her the glass. She took it to her lips, the trembling of her hands didn't go unnoticed by her friend. He waited until she had finished taking a few sips before daring to speak :

"Bad one?" He asked softly.  
"Yeah. Worst I've had in a while." She replied her voice low but slightly more firm than it had been a few minutes ago.  
"Do you want to talk about it?"  
"No..." She let out a soft sigh. "Not yet... I'm not ready."

He nodded in response, telling her that he understood. He knew that sometimes things needed to settle before it became possible to talk about them with another. They chatted for a little, talking about simple things and planning the day ahead. Aelita rested her head on his shoulder, her nightmare having drained most of her energy. It wasn't long before she dozed off, hopefully to a more relaxed and friendlier place. Ulrich didn't go back to sleep however, he had always struggled to fall asleep having been woken up. Instead, he sat their in silence thinking private thoughts as he contemplated the sunrise.

It was later that day when the kids were at school that they received a visitor a young blonde woman who worked as a scientist here as far as they could understand. Her name was Laura. Ulrich and Aelita had been working outside in an attempt to get their waterwheel working and were as usual covered in grime and muck. She turned up in one of their reconditioned cars that ran on electricity and stepped out, taking care not to stand in any mud or animal dung.

"One day I'll understand how you can live like this..." She muttered turning up her nose in disgust.  
"If you'd ever spent any time out there in the wilds, then you wouldn't say that." Aelita snapped back.

Laura was an anomaly. Ulrich had never known Aelita to instinctively dislike someone before now but from the moment she had laid eyes on the blond woman, sparks had flown. At first, it had just been cold and sour looks, then the odd comment and now it was pretty much everything that they said to each other... The Lyoko Samurai didn't feel quite so strongly about it; he didn't like the scientist, far from it, he found her stuck up and obnoxious but he never was aggressive towards her, at least not openly. Then again, unlike Aelita, he wasn't a super-genius trying to hide it; he could understand how a certain woman acting as if she knew-it-all would quickly become grating.

"No thanks." She replied giving them a false grin. "I managed to shield myself from them, so I skipped the holes picking berries stage."  
"Why are you here Laura?" Ulrich decided to intervene before a full argument erupted between them.  
"They asked me to let you know that the others are back." Laura replied indifferently, barely even looking at him. "They'll be some party at the town hall. You're invited. That's all."

And that was all, without saying another word or waiting for their answer. She spun on her heels, got back into her car and drove off. Aelita was far from complaining.

They hadn't heard much about just who these others were. All they knew, was that among them were most of the founders and leaders of this little community. They had gone searching for some valuable materials needed in the fight against X.A.N.A taking with them about a quarter of the village's number. Not that Aelita and Ulrich had really noticed, everything seemed to be working just fine in the Sanctuary and showed no signs of diminished manpower. In, fact, due to their previous secluded lifestyle and lack of human encounters, both often found themselves feeling rather crowded and not entirely at ease in the streets.

They still spent most of their days at their farm whilst their children attended the school. In the space of a month, they had regained electricity, started up a vegetable garden, built a coop and some hunches for their chickens and rabbits and had almost repaired the waterwheel. They were rather proud of themselves. Generally, they were left to their own devices. They had to share whatever food they produced which was only fair. Asides from that, they were relatively free to do what they wanted.

Their children were certainly enjoying the time spent here. It was their first real chance to interact with other kids their age. Already, Kai was proving to be rather popular among the local girls much like his father had been at his age, he differed from the Lyoko warrior somewhat however as he didn't seem to mind the attention, indeed he quite enjoyed it. Chip and Marie had also been given a chance to show their true colors and shine, already the two of them were considered prodigies, especially given the lives that they had lead. In fact, Aelita had been forced to ask them to play down their intelligence somewhat to avoid awakening any suspicion.

That evening, the teens returned at 4.30P.M, just in time to help out with some of the chores. Ulrich was attempting to fix the wheel of their cart whilst they filled some buckets with water in order to give the plants a water and clean the floor. Suddenly, from behind him, he was struck by some water. The Lyoko Warrior turned around, glaring at the teenagers in command of a hose and wondering which one was the culprit. Not Chip, too daring for him... Marie? It wasn't impossible but he was willing to bet that his son was the one responsible.

"Kai!" He grumbled lowly as a warning.  
"It wasn't me!"

Ulrich was rather good at telling when his son was lying and at the moment, he found himself somewhat surprised to see that he was telling the truth. That meant it was Marie. He gave the girl a warning glance before turning his back once more and getting back to the cart. The wheel wasn't all that damaged, still it was better dealt with now than to have it break off whilst they were using it. The sound of the hose was heard again and he found himself being splashed once more. He spun around to see the hose in the hands of Chip. The young boy looked rather startled, causing the Lyoko warrior to believe someone had hastily placed it there so that he would take the blame.

He turned his back once more and counted to ten before without spinning back around on his heels. His eyes widened as he received yet another jet of water straight in the face, although this time he managed to make out the culprit. Ulrich ran a hand through his long fringe brushing it out of his eyes. He spat out some water as he glared at Aelita. She starred at him for a moment, before turning the hose back on and splashing him once more.

Ulrich frowned before slowly walking towards her, the pink haired woman looked around somewhat alarmed as he came over. Already, the teens were backing away quickly as they noticed the smirk on the man's face. Aelita was a little slow when it came to running and she found herself being grabbed by her friend's strong arms. He slung her over one shoulder despite her laughter and protestations. She gently punched his back in an attempt to get him to let go.

"Kids! Save me!"  
"Nuh uh..." Chip replied for all of them. "We're staying out of this one!"  
"Ah! Betrayed!" Aelita lamented as her children laughed. "Ulrich where are you taking me?"  
"I'm going to get me some payback." He replied with a smirk.

Aelita's eyes widened abruptly as she found herself being dropped into the horse's water trough. She spluttered for a few moments before instinctively pulling herself. Ulrich laughed softly. As she glared at him before slowly joining in his laughter. Suddenly both of them found themselves being sprayed by water from the hose, they turned to see their children laughing as they hoses down their parents. The adults exchanged a brief knowing glance before charging their kids. It wasn't long before the sound of laughter was echoing out over the valley.

Ulrich smiled as he held Chip in place so that his mother could better hose him down, it was good to see Aelita cheerier again, hopefully her nightmare had been forgotten about now and wouldn't plague her again. Kai was currently hiding half way up a tree whilst a completely soaked Marie, tried to leg it as a far away from her hose wielding mother as she could.

"Well now, I was kind of hoping that you guys would turn up for tonight's celebration." A voice declared from the entrance to the farm. "How are you going to do that if you've managed to drown yourselves on dry land?"  
"Hallo Patrick." Aelita gave him a warm smile as she cut off the water.

They had grown closer to Patrick. Despite their initial mistrust and suspicion, they had learned that he was a truly a good person, trying his best to protect the survivors of the town. As such, he had their respect and loyalty. He had told them that he was only acting commander however and that the true leader of this place was currently away on a mission. The same mission which had returned today as it turned out. Whether they would get on with the head honcho of this place remained to be seen but asides from a few exceptions such as Laura, the people here seemed to be nice enough. They were just trying to survive, like everyone else left on the planet.

"I just came by to make sure you'd gotten the message." He informed them with a fond smile.  
"Yeah, Laura dropped by earlier." Ulrich or as everyone in the town knew him, Alex answered.  
"Good. Will we see you there?"  
"Of course, it's been so long since we were last at a party..." Aelita replied helping her son up.  
"Right. See you there then."

With that he got back onto his bike and drove off. Aelita turned to look at the kids and her friend, some cleaning up might be called for if they didn't want to look completely wild.

Several warm showers later, they were dressing up. It wasn't tuxedos but they made an effort to use clean and well-kept clothes. Aelita brushed out her daughter's hair ensuring that there were no knots in it. Marie was unusually well behaved as she sat on the stool, allowing her mother to clean her up. Perhaps the "almost" normal lifestyle they had recently developed had caused her mature a little. In any case, her mother certainly wasn't complaining about it. Behind her, Ulrich was trying his best to brush down some of Kai's rogue hair, a near impossible task, if only they had some hair-gel left over from before the apocalypse.

Chip looked very smart and so very much like his father. It caused his mother a certain amount of pain. She wished that her husband could be here to see his children, he would be proud. Ulrich had consented to a hair cut and had even trimmed his beard. A pleasant change from his usual rather rugged look. Aelita herself had given some thought into her hair style and was currently receiving some odd looks from her children.

"Mum? What are you doing?" Asked Marie tilting her head to one side slightly.  
"I always preferred to have my hair short." She replied cutting off several locks.

Ulrich watched with interest, he hadn't seen Aelita with hair that short since... Well, he honestly couldn't have said when. All he knew was that he associated it with a younger version of her from before all of this catastrophe. He wondered if her sudden decision to cut her hair was linked with last night's nightmare. He was curious about that but for the moment, respect and an unwillingness to risk upsetting her prevented him from questioning her any further. Still, he would ask her sometime in the future.

They left a few minutes later, already the sound of the celebration could be heard in the distance. Apparently, the party was already well underway. Only to be expected, they had made the choice to turn up fashionably late. They rode in on their horses, stopping by a tying them up as if they would have over a hundred years ago, when they were still a common form of transportation. They ensured that the horses had enough to eat and drink in the troughs before heading off to check out the party.

Most of the community seemed to be here, they chatted and laughed loudly. Some danced as a band played some rock music. The children looked on with a mixture of excitement and awe, this was new to them. Newer than it shouldn't have been. Music, crowds... This was almost normal. They chose to stay near to their parents for the time being, their wide eyes taking in every single detail.

"It's been a while since I was last at a party." Ulrich admitted taking a look around. "Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves."  
"And we should be to." Aelita declared. "Hey, aren't those your friends from school?"

The teens instinctively turned to see a large group of youths of various ages. They waved at the group of newly arrived teens. Coming here had meant that their children had had the chance to finally meet some kids closer to their own age. It had been strange for them at first but now they had gotten somewhat more used to it. They would now frequently spend time with their new-found friends rather than at home. Sad in a way but finally they seemed to be living normal-ish lives for teenagers. That was no bad thing. It didn't take much for Chip, Marie and Kai to go and join them.

Aelita smiled fondly as she watched the children interact with the others. There was food and drink a plenty on offer. People crowded around without a care in the world. There were some new faces here, that neither of them recognized, some of the returned heroes perhaps? They'd have to ask around and see.

"It's been a while since I drank alcohol." Ulrich confessed taking a swig of beer.  
"All the more reason to do so moderately." Aelita declared eyeing Ulrich up cautiously.  
"Relax Maya, I'm not about to get drunk."

She believed him. She had only ever known Ulrich Stern to get drunk the once and that had been largely due to Odd's corrupting influence. Genuinely, he knew how much he could handle and never drank to excess. Although now by his own admission, he hadn't had a drink in quite some time, which meant inevitably that his body was no longer used to it. Still, she'd have to trust him to known his own limits. They leaned back against one of the walls as they watched people partying.

"Annoys me." Ulrich declared in a sigh. "This all seems so alien. I'm not sure I can get used to it."  
"Alex, just look at the kids, they're happy here." Sure enough the Lyoko warrior saw his son dancing with a young tomboyish girl called Clara. "A lot happened but we survived. Now we've just got to learn to live."

Ulrich paused, thinking her words over. Always a source of wisdom, Aelita never ceased to amaze him wit her ability to see the light side of life even in it's darkest moments. Then again, this wasn't one of them. He should be happy right now but some invisible force always seemed to be hanging of his shoulders. It was fear. He had been happy once, then in a second he had lost the woman he loved the most in the world. So now, he feared happiness as if it were the cause of his beloved's death, somehow it's return could mean him losing someone else that he cared about.

"How do you do it?" Ulrich asked her in a quiet voice. "Keep on living like this? With so much fire..."  
"I think there comes a time when we've got to accept what is." Aelita closed her eyes briefly." I could go on spending my life hoping that Jeremy will just stride in here. I could spend my life like that or I could accept that he's gone and try to live out my life and not waste it."

He didn't say anything in reply. Yumi was gone, he'd seen it happen right before his very eyes. Nothing would change that and certainly nothing would bring her back. He had accepted that. Now it would seem that what remained was for him to live with that fact and not to let it prevent him from living a normal life. He let out a soft sigh and allowed his mind to wonder for a few moments. Somehow the sound of the music still found it's way to his ears however, as did the smell of the food and the laughter and chatter of those around him. He opened his eyes, this was real and he was here? Why couldn't he live with that?

Aelita's eyes widened abruptly as Ulrich grabbed her around the wrist pulling her into the group of dancers.

"Want to dance?" He asked her.  
"Are you giving me the choice?" She chuckled as a reply.

Aelita smiled unsure what had taken over her friend. She wasn't complaining, she always liked music – well maybe not Odd's taste in music – and it had been years since she had last danced and if she was honest, she wasn't too sure that she could remember how. He looked around her, nobody else seemed to be having any trouble, she shouldn't be so uncertain. Still, she told herself that she had better try.

Taking a couple of shaky and unsure steps she kept her gaze firmly on the ground trying her best not to stand on Ulrich's feet. She felt clumsy, uncertain. All of this remained strange to her but slowly, memories began to resurface from the depths of her mind. She had danced once before, many times in fact, with Jeremy, with Odd, with William and even with Ulrich on her wedding night. Yes, she could remember it now, like it was yesterday. Good times indeed. What she wouldn't give to be able to travel backwards in time, relive those days. Change things so that the dark ones never happened.

She found herself slowly beginning to take some uneasy steps. Her feet were used to running away X.A.N.A, dancing seemed to be far removed from all that. She closed her eyes trying to follow the rhythm of the music, it was slow, simple but pleasant. An old tune, one that doubtlessly hundreds of couples had danced to throughout history. She realized that she was slowly beginning to feel the beat. A small smile crept over her face, she had forgotten how much she loved music and Ulrich as odd as it might seem was no bad dancer. Finally getting into the swing of it, she began dancing as she would once have a long time ago. Even allowing a couple of laughs to escape her lips.

"What's her problem?" Ulrich asked nodding in the direction of Laura.  
"Beats me. Is she even in a good mood?"  
"Not when someone reasonable is around." He laughed softly as a response.

Aelita smiled, as they continued to dance, forgetting about the blonde woman as she did so. Allowing herself to be carried away by the music, she found herself feeling strangely peaceful. Things should always be this way. Without warning one of the visions from her nightmare resurfaced. Ulrich's face was transfigured, replaced with that of the man possessed by .A. Instinctively, she closed her eyes and flinched away, she would have probably fallen to her knees had it not been for her old friend, who although shocked prevented her from falling.

"Aelita, you okay?"  
"I uh-"  
"Come on." He offered her a smile which failed to mask his concern before leading her away.

Aelita followed without protesting. She was clearly shaken and Ulrich knew that he needed to get her away from the crowds as fast as possible to prevent causing a scene. Not that she would have done so ordinarily but something clearly wasn't right. He lead her outside, holding her hand softly but firmly taking her outside. Fortunately, Chip and Marie were too enthralled with whatever they were doing with the other kids to notice the two of them slipping out of the door.

He found a spot in the town, secluded under some trees. Aelita sat there, on an old mossy rock. She said nothing, her head hung low. Ulrich had of course thought back to the events of the early morning and had linked the two before. His pink haired friend's nightmares had always had an odd tendency to manifest themselves in the real world, like phantoms of her subconsciousness. Unpleasant and as far as he could tell, sometimes truly terrifying. He waited patiently as she took deep but shaky breaths, trying to calm herself.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ulrich eventually asked her.  
"I think I had better." She replied in a low voice.

Still, shaking slightly. She began to tell him of the nightmare which had shaken her the night before. Ulrich listened gradually turning a little paler as he did so. He knew that Aelita's dreams sometimes had a funny way of becoming true...


	16. Chapter 16

**Sorry again for the delay but it's a pretty big chapter. Yeah, pathetic excuse I know. Anyhow, I should be able to post more often soon. Thanks for the reviews!**

**/**

"So you're not even going to dance?" The skinny blonde haired man asked his old friend.  
"No." His reply was soft but firm. "Not tonight."  
"_Not ever_, more like it."

He didn't respond. Probably because he knew that his old friend was right. He would never dance again, no matter what the circumstance, not without her. A small but tired smile made its way onto his lips, they were all so happy to be back. No casualties, families reunited, new supplies... He should be happy, this was as good as it got around here. Still, he found himself unable to shake off the feeling of emptiness which had been haunting him all these years. How could he possibly be happy without his family? Some managed, even managing to form new ones out of the ashes, it was far from unheard of. His own cousin being a prime example- Speak of, here he was now.

"Hiya cuz!" A young dark haired man came over.  
"Hey there Patrick." He greeted him with a brief but friendly hug.  
"You made in back in one piece then." Patrick replied with a smile.  
"Sure did. No casualties, that's always good." The blonde haired man informed him. "How have things been here? Any newcomers?"  
"As it happens." Patrick answered thinking back to their recent arrivals. "A family with kids turned up about a month back. They'd been living out in the wilds."

A family? The blonde man raised his eyebrows interested, families were a precious rarity these days, many of them were broken and kids were even rarer. The idea that such a group could have survived in the wilds was an amazing one. They knew that with each passing month it grew more and more difficult to survive away from civilization. They were used to picking up groups of one or two adults but nothing was more valuable to their continued survival than a family.

"How many?" He raised an eyebrow curious.  
"Five, two adults late thirties, early forties." Patrick recited rather methodically. "Three children, a young lad about 15-16, a 13 year old girl and a 12 year old boy. Not sure they're all related though."  
"Why not?"  
"Well, for starters Maya said that Kai is-"

The blonde man turned a little paler at the mention of two names from his past. He disregarded the boy's name rapidly as impossible. Maya, he allowed himself to linger over. His mind instinctively drifted back to a computer screen a very long time ago when he was still a boy, barely even a teenager... He had almost given up hope but still, some illogical part of him couldn't help but flinch every time he heard of something relating to those he had lost. This didn't go unnoticed by his friends.

"You okay?" A a pretty woman with long dark hair asked him.  
"Yes. Patrick, where are these newcomers?" The young man looked around failing to see an unfamiliar face.  
"Oh, well Alex and Maya were here dancing just a minute ago..." The young man searched the hall. "That's strange, they were here just a minute ago. They might have been a little uncomfortable with the crowds, they spend most of their time at the old watermill you know?"

Patrick turned to look at his cousin. The blonde man appeared to be completely spaced out. Great, just great! The dark haired man thought to himself. He shouldn't have mentioned the newcomers. It didn't take much to send his cousin off into a world of his own, a word, a face, a memory. It was the same with many of the people here. It did make him somewhat of a drag for the rest of the evening however usually resulting in him slipping into a nearly depressed state. His friends had tried to break him of the habit but so far all attempts had failed and honestly Patrick couldn't find it in him to blame or hold it against his cousin : he had lost so much.

"Lets get you some fresh air." Patrick suggested placing an arm round his cousin's shoulders. "I'll do you some good."  
"Mmh." He grunted as a reply before accepting to be lead outside.

/

"You certainly can pick your nightmares." Ulrich told the still shaken Aelita.  
"Doesn't it bother you?" She questioned looking into his dark eyes.  
"Well, you know as well as I do what you'd have to do if that ever happened to me Aelita." He reminded her in a quiet voice.

She didn't respond, instead choosing to look away. They had talked several times about what would happen should one of them fall into X.A. hands or under his influence, each time they agreed that a bullet would be the only answer. Still, every time the young woman imagined herself shooting her childhood friend, she shuddered in horror. Deep inside, she wasn't sure that she would ever be capable of such an action. Killing her last remaining friend? Aelita felt as if she might rather die herself.

She wasn't too sure what she had been expecting by talking to him like this. Words of reassurance? His word that such an event would never happen? Ulrich wasn't the type of man to make promises that he couldn't keep, especially not where X.A.N.A was concerned. Not once when leaving on a potentially dangerous mission had he ever told them that "he would be fine" or that "nothing would happen to him" because deep down he knew that it was possible that he might not be okay, that he might not come back and that he could very well die somewhere out in the wilderness. So, he never made promises that he couldn't keep, at least, should he meet his end, he would die an honest man.

"Ulrich..." She let out in a soft sigh. "I want you do something for me."  
"Anything, that's possible." Was his simple reply.  
"If trouble comes, we run." She fixed him firmly. "All of us."

Ulrich frowned slightly, apparently a little surprised by her request. They had run before. Back at the camp in the Alps, they had fled. Why wouldn't they do it again? Granted they were probably closer to the survivors here than they had ever been to any other group that they had encountered so far. Still, their policy had always been to survive together. Her sudden request made little sense to him, perhaps that nightmare had taken more out of her than he had initially believed.

"Aelita-" He began unsure just what to say to her.  
"Swear to me that if needs be, we'll run!" She demanded.  
"I swear." He looked her dead in the eyes, brushing some of her hair out of her face. "I swear, if things get ugly, we'll leave, you, me and the kids."

She nodded, apparently slightly relieved by his promise. She was still shaking slightly though, he held her a little closer offering her a mixture of warmth and comfort. Aelita closed her eyes, resting her head against his chest. In doing so, she became almost entirely limp. He had half a mind to take her back to the mill, they could claim that she wasn't feeling well quite legitimately but maybe that wouldn't be fair on her. In a few minutes, she might be back to normal in which case it would be a shame for her to miss the party.

"You okay, Aelita?" He asked her after a few more moments.  
"Yes." She replied her voice a little firmer.  
"I mean asides the nightmares." He clarified, pulling away slightly and holding both of her shoulders. "I know it's coming up to five years. It can be hard. Maybe, we can ask around. Discretely, I mean... They might have heard about him."  
"Ulrich, I think we'd know if Jeremy were here..." Aelita spoke lowly, he couldn't find it in him to lie and contradict her. "He's gone... I came to terms with it a while ago."

Ulrich didn't reply. He had guessed as much a while ago. There would still be pain whenever her husband was mentioned, that would never go away, he knew from personal experience that it was pretty much impossible to not be hurt by the memory of a lost loved one. Acceptance however was an essential part of the process of being able to live again, being able to realize that the person you loved was gone and wasn't coming back was both painful and at times almost impossible as every fiber of your being wished it to be a dream and for them still to be with you. It had taken him ten years to come to terms with Yumi's death and for ten years, he had suffered for it. It would seem that Aelita had managed it in half that time.

"We're still here though..." She continued, perhaps more to herself than to anyone else. "That means we have to keep on living for them. Doesn't it?"  
"What do you think?" He asked, not poking fun but all too serious.  
"I think that despite everything, for the first time in years..." She paused for a moment before raising her eyes to meet his. "There's some hope."

Ulrich simply smiled as a response. He couldn't have said why he did what he did next, he wasn't even too sure which one of them moved first. He could have said why either. In fact, he was barely aware of what he was doing. Well, he was vaguely aware, not even he was capable of kissing someone without realizing it. His mind was strangely blank, as he stood there with his old friend. _What are you doing?_ Came a voice in his head. _You shouldn't be-_ Yet for some reason he couldn't pull away.

He couldn't have said how long they stood there, sharing a kiss. The moonlight's silvery rays shining through the leaves. The night seemed to be unnaturally calm for those few moments that they were together. After a few seconds however they pulled apart. It had been quite some time since Ulrich had last kissed someone, many years. The same was true for Aelita of course and both of them couldn't help but see the images of their loved one for a few moments. An awkward silence settled over them. They remained standing close to each other.

Aelita blushed slightly, looking down at her feet. She brushed some of her hair behind her ear. Ulrich simply starred at her somewhat unfolded for a couple of moments. She opened her mouth to speak but it was not her voice which cut through the night.

"Aelita?"

The sound of her name being spoken by anyone other than Ulrich caused Aelita to turn ghostly pale. She inhaled sharply and stiffened. A sick feeling suddenly overcoming her, fear radiated through her entire body as she very slowly turned to face the man standing only a few feet away, hidden partly by the shadows of the night. Her head pounded in her chest so loudly, that she had to remind herself to keep on breathing if she wanted to avoid a panic attack.

Nobody here knew their real names, not anyone outside of the family. Could someone have overheard them talking in private? It wasn't impossible, they had been careful but not so as to mean that they never used their real names. Whilst both of them were cautious, they had never really taken many precautions, had they been then they likely would have forced their children to adopt false names and would have stopped using their own all together. Perhaps they should have made more of a point of always making the effort to call each other "Maya" and "Alex".

Still, the damage was done. They had been discovered or at least Aelita's had but if they knew who she was then the true identity of her companion would likely follow. Ulrich instinctively, stepped in front of his friend, with everything she had been through, she wasn't in much of a state to fight, although he knew that the passing years had made her hard and that within a couple of seconds, she would be ready to fight and to run.

Patrick was standing along side the stranger, his eyes wide completely taken back. It was clear that this was as much of a surprise to him as it was to them. _Good..._ Ulrich thought to himself. _Maybe we can still bluff our way out. _

"Jeremy?"

_Or maybe not... Hang on. What had she just said? _

Aelita pushed past him, stepping in front of her old friend so that she could better see the man who had spoken her name in a way so familiar to her. He stepped out of the shadows slightly so that they could see his long blonde hair and a pair of round glasses glimmered in the moonlight. Such a large pair would only have belonged on one boy, well, Jeremy Belpois was more of a man now and had been for some time now. He hadn't changed that much, to the extent that there was no doubt in either his wife or his old friend's minds as to who he was.

He starred at them with wide eyes. Blinking as if he couldn't quite comprehend or believe what he was seeing. Then, very slowly, he nodded shaking slightly, confirming that it really was him.

"Oh my God..." Muttered Aelita putting her hands in front of her mouth in shock.  
"I- I didn't think..." Jeremy's voice came across trembling from emotion. "I thought that you had died... I-I..."

Aelita didn't give him any more of an opportunity to stutter before throwing herself into his arms. Jeremy almost fell over. His legs shaking so much from a mixture of emotion and shock. His arms slowly wrapped themselves around his wife, whom he had given up for dead in his heart so many years ago after he had failed to retrieve her from the freezing river which had carried her off to some place far away. Now, she was back in his arms. So warm and so very real just as he had often dreamed of finding her again. A couple of tears trickled down his face as he held her close.

"I missed you." He whispered into her ear.  
"So did I." She replied with a warm but sad smile.

Ulrich remained silent feeling a jealousy he hadn't felt in quite some time. He wasn't actually jealous of Jeremy. Well, he was in a way but more of Aelita. She was in the arms of the man who she loved once more, a man whom she had believed to be dead and yet somehow by some miracle had returned to her, here in the flesh. That could never happen to him. The woman he loved was dead, he had been the one to out her in the ground... Never again, would he feel the warmth of Yumi against him, hear how she had missed him and tell her how he loved her. For a moment, he hated both Aelita and Jeremy for that, that they might love each other. He would have to wait until he died before being reunited with Yumi.

Almost as soon as it appeared however, his pain and jealousy disappeared. He would have to reveal to Jeremy that he too was still alive but not now. Now was a time for him to have some time with his wife. That and there was also the slight matter of what had happened a couple of seconds before the blonde genius had made his presence known. Had he witnessed their kiss? If he had, he wasn't letting it show. A caught Patrick's eye, a slightly embarrassed blush followed by a knowing smile confirmed what Ulrich had feared, they had seen them.

For now however, joy seemed to have made both husband and wife forget the latter's show of affection to another man, although Ulrich suspected that there may be some questions asked later. So be it... For now, the joy of the reunion triumphed.

"I thought I lost you... When you all fell in the river." Some tears were flowing down Jeremy's cheeks now, as they were his wife's also.  
"Our children Jeremy!" Aelita spoke in between sobs. "They're alive!"  
"What?!" He pulled away to look her in the eyes, a look of shock on his face which was soon replaced by a smile.  
"Christopher and Marie, they're both alive!" She repeated a beaming smile on her face. "Come on! Oh, wait until you see their faces! They've grown up so much!"

Ulrich watched the two walk off but didn't follow. Patrick seemed to hesitate for a moment before nodding in agreement, Aelita and Jeremy needed some time to themselves. The Samurai found himself left alone, outside on a perfectly clear night. He inhaled some of the fresh evening air, enjoying the sensation in his lungs. He certainly hadn't been expecting that one. He'd leave it a bit before introducing himself to Jeremy, maybe he'd let Aelita break the news for him. With any luck, the genius would be too overjoyed at finding his wife after all these years to remember the kiss that he had seen her share with another man.

That kiss... Why on Earth had he kissed her? He thought about it for a few moments but had some trouble finding an answer.

"Well, I certainly didn't see that one coming." Came the voice of familiar teenager from above him in one of the larger apple trees.  
"Didn't I teach you not to snoop?!" Ulrich frowned disapprovingly looking up at the figure.

The lad in the tree offered him a smirk which he only just managed to make out in the darkness. Ulrich let out a sigh as his son joined him on the firm ground. He wasn't actually surprised at seeing his teenage son in the tree : hell, years of living in the wilds had made the boy part cat, if there was somewhere awkward or difficult to reach, you could bet that you'd find Kai Ishiyama-Stern there. What would Yumi have said? Something told the father that his long-term girlfriend would have been a little firmer where the education of their son was concerned. Then again, she'd never had to face the added difficulty of him going through puberty, or the end of the world for that matter.

"Aren't you going to go join them?" Kai asked his father. "I'm pretty sure they still think we're dead."  
"No, not yet. Aelita and Jeremy need their time together." He explained trying not to reveal his second motive.  
"So?" Kai tilted his head to one side slightly, a little confused. "You're his friend, I'm sure he'd like to know that you're still alive."

Ulrich let out a frustrated sigh, he would have liked some time alone but here he found himself with his young, curious and honestly slightly oblivious son. He was fairly sure that the lad had seen him kiss Aelita, he wasn't about to ask but Kai had disappeared a while before they had actually left the hall, causing him to suspect that he had in fact witnessed everything. Knowing the teen, he was either too polite or too confused to mention it or perhaps more likely, didn't want to risk a row from his father for snooping.

"Allow me to teach you some of the basics of social etiquette!" Ulrich declared to his son with an exaggerated movement of the arm. "Making out with one of your best friends' wives in front of him is typically considered to be rude!"  
"Even if it's an apocalypse and you didn't know it was him?" Kai questioned a smirk teasing at the corner of his mouth.  
"Even if it's the apocalypse." His father confirmed.

An silence settled between the two of them for a couple of moments, yet for some reason it wasn't all that awkward, definitely not so much as it would have been had they been in the same situation a few months ago. Ulrich even surprised himself by realizing that he was smiling, faintly and somewhat distantly but smiling none-the-less. Okay, so perhaps kissing his old friend hadn't been the wisest of moves and he certainly couldn't have timed it any worse but the knowledge that she had found her husband, that Jeremy Belpois would be reunited with his children after so many years and that they were no longer the last Lyoko warriors warmed his heart. Hope was something that he hadn't felt in a long time and if he was honest, he had almost forgotten what it was like to believe that somehow, they might just win.

Kai came and stood next to his father, hands in his pockets looking up into the stary sky. They both stood there in silence, closer than they had been in a long time.

"Say... Why did you do it anyway?" Kai eventually spoke out looking at his old man.  
"Huh?" Ulrich raised an eyebrow a little too deep in his thoughts to have fully processed what his son was going on about.  
"Why'd you kiss Aelita?" The teen asked turning fully to face his father. "I didn't know that you-"  
"It's complicated." Ulrich cut his son short.

The look on Kai's face meant that he didn't even have to speak the words : _mind explaining?_ Ulrich let out a frustrated sigh and ran a hand down his chin and over his beard, where to begin? It was hard to explain something that he himself understood so very little, he couldn't very well lie but nor could he give a direct answer, ideally, he would have required several days and a couple of chats with Aelita before being able to explain, that was if she knew what had happened and why any more than he did. Frankly, he wasn't too sure of that either.

"If I'm perfectly honest, I don't really know." He admitted rubbing the back of his neck.  
"Was it like mom?" Kai questioned somewhat timidly, aware that his mother was a touchy subject.  
"No..." Ulrich replied firmly. "Nothing like that... Maybe if you had a girlfriend then you'd understand."  
"Tough luck..." Kai replied with a broad smile. "I'm single."  
"I suppose that you don't know what a platonic relationship is." Ulrich frowned slightly looking at his son.  
"Platonic? You mean those things with duck beaks and beaver's tails in Australia?" Kai raised an eyebrow unsure what this had to do with adult relationships.  
"Consider yourself disowned." Was Ulrich's only response.

Kai faked an upturned face and pretended to wipe away some tears. Ulrich found himself smiling at his son's goofiness, as it reminded him strangely enough of Odd of all people. He wished that he had spent more time with his son, although technically they had barely spent a moment apart since the end of the world but in practice, he found that he didn't know the boy as much as he would like to. Not as a father and son should in any case and if there was one thing he had always wanted to avoid it was a rift creating itself between him and his son as had existed between himself as his father.

There was something jovial about the boy which his father could quite put his finger on. Kai had every reason in the world to be angry and upset, yet for some reason, he almost never was. The boy had lost his mother and seen her murdered, yet somehow, he seemed to be able to keep on going. Ulrich loved him for that. There was something both pure and innocent about the boy's joyous laugh.

"I'm just messing with you dad." Kai assured him through his laughter. "No, but seriously... Do you love Aelita?"  
"Of course I do..." He replied almost instantly in a soft voice. "I just- Maybe not in the sense of _kissing_ her."  
"I don't understand." The teenager replied in a slightly lower voice, marked with confusion.  
"There are more ways to love someone than romantically." His father explained offering him a soft but warm smile. "Not everything has to be _sealed with a kiss_."  
"You've lost me." Kai confessed frowning slightly before scratching his head. "You just said that you loved Aelita. So why not kiss-?"  
"Have I ever kissed you on the lips?"  
"Thank God for that! You-" Kai paused suddenly his eyes wide. "Hey! Wait-"

The teen blinked a couple of times, starring at his father and wondering if he had heard him correctly. Ulrich simply offered his son a smile before briefly casting his glance up to the sky and thinking of the woman that he loved and wondering if she was up there somewhere, looking down at them and smiling also. He turned back to face his young son, the boy's dark eye which he had inherited from his mother still fixed his father with a look of complete and utter bewilderment.

"Figured I probably don't say it enough." Ulrich replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "I'm sorry about that."  
"Don't be..." Kai spoke in a slightly quieter voice. "The feeling's mutual..."

Ulrich smiled, opening his arms. His son took a couple of steps forwards, welcoming his father's embrace. It was brief and strangely for the two of them, didn't carry that much emotional hardship. It struck Kai's dad, that this was exactly the sort of hug he should and would have given his son were they living any semblance of a normal life, otherwise put if they were an ordinary father and son not living through the apocalypse. Maybe, she should make more of an effort, Aelita always seemed to combine being the mother of twins and surviving the end of civilization as they knew it so well...

"What do you say you and I go back inside?" Ulrich proposed to his son keeping an arm around his shoulders. "I'm sure Jeremy would love to see how much you've grown."  
"Let's make sure he's done catching up with his own family first." Kai agreed with a smile.

Father and son walked slowly towards the hall where the music seemed to have stopped. Doubtlessly Jeremy was introducing his long lost wife to the rest of the survivors. Who knew, Patrick was here, maybe others they had known had also survived and somehow made it to this sanctuary, where tonight at least, miracles seemed to be happening. Hope was a powerful fuel and one which Ulrich hadn't felt in quite some time. It allowed him to dream for the briefest of moments, that as he swung open the doors to the hall, he would be face to face with all of his old friends : Odd, Jeremy, Aelita, William... Yumi...

Oh what he wouldn't give to see her again, even for an instant... If only, if only...

Just as they approached the door, it swung open violently. Slightly startled both Ulrich and his young son jumped back, their years in the wilds had rendered them somewhat jumpy, ready for a fight or to run at the first sign of trouble. They relaxed somewhat, as a familiar blonde haired man stormed through.

Just why it took Ulrich so long to react, he couldn't say. Usually, his reflexes were lightning quick and he was able to judge situations in a heartbeat but at that particular moment, perhaps because he was faced with one of his oldest friends who he hadn't seen in years and had assumed to be dead, he found himself too slow. Before he could react, he found a gun directed at his head.

He didn't quite know how to respond to that, in fact, for a few seconds he was so surprised, he simply blinked as he starred down the barrel of a revolver, he was all too certain was loaded. He felt Kai suddenly grip his arm as they were surrounded by at least seven other men and women from the town, each of them holding a weapon of some description. Slowly, Ulrich raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, trying to show that he wasn't a threat.

He raised his eyes to look at his old friend. Dark brown met blue as the two old friends glared at each other.

"Jeremy..." He spoke softly, trying to send something calming though his voice. "It's me; Ulrich. Ulrich Stern."

Jeremy didn't lower the gun, in fact, Ulrich distinctly heard the weapon click. He's not messing about... The survivor realized looking into his old friend's eyes, the coldness and determination there couldn't be mistaken for anything other than a man who was ready and willing to kill. Sensing the danger to his life and that of his son, he let out a curse under his breath, pushing Kai firmly behind him.

"Damn it Jeremy, I don't want to fight you!" Ulrich warned him in a deep throated growl.

Still, no response! Surely this wasn't about him kissing Aelita? Ulrich knew that Jeremy loved his wife, he had done so from the moment that he had fatefully turned on that supercomputer so many years ago, changing all their lives forever. With that came a certain amount of jealousy however, just like Ulrich and Yumi had always been jealous, as soon as one saw the other with another girl/boy they would fly into gloomy moods and rages. Fortunately, it had eased off somewhat as they had grown a little older. Which was why Ulrich was still somewhat surprised to be looking down the barrel of a gun.

What Jeremy said next, Ulrich would never forget.

"Ulrich Stern is dead."

He didn't respond. What could he say to such a statement. Instead he just starred at the man blankly. Behind him, Aelita slowly came into view holding both of her children close. She was flanked by two other members of the village, presumably should she try something. This wasn't just Jeremy who had assumed that he was dead... They all did and if they were pointing weapons at him. He took a couple of steps backwards, still shielding his son from any potential bullets, not that his body would do much to protect the boy but it was better than nothing.

"Jeremy..." He spoke finally, his voice shaking a little. "You couldn't possibly know that I-"  
"Ulrich Stern is dead." Spoke a feminine voice from behind him. "I should know, I buried him."

He couldn't move. His legs turned to stone as the words which came from behind him sunk in. It wasn't what she had said but rather who had said it. Physically shaking, Ulrich turned around slowly. In the moonlight, his eyes met the figure of a beautiful young woman or at least she would have been, were it not for the huge scar covering the left side of her face, disfiguring her.

Tears brimmed inside of his dark eyes, he couldn't stop them. Not now, not here...

"Yumi..."


	17. Chapter 17

_**A year's delay... Uh, I- No, there's no excusing this, is there?**_

_**/**_

Ulrich let out a heavy sigh, resting his head against the bars of the cage behind him. It was dark in here but for some reason, it brought him a little comfort. He had been dumped in here without much ceremony or a trial. He couldn't really blame them, not with what he had been told... He was a security risk and like all security risks he belonged some place where he couldn't reasonably hurt other people. If that meant behind bars, then so be it. He wasn't about to fight those who had put him in this cell... He didn't have the will to do so anyhow.

All he could think about was Yumi. Her face was now etched into his mind and try as he might, he couldn't get her out from behind his eyelids. She was still alive. It was impossible but he had seen her with his very own eyes. There was no doubting that it was her, she hadn't changed that much if you excluded the huge scar which currently ran across one side of her face and had claimed her left eye. Her right eye however maintained all of it's original determination and passion...

As soon as he laid eyes on her, he had been reminded just why he had fallen in love with her all those years ago and why he would never stop loving her until the end of his days. That was if they hadn't already ended. He was dead and according to them, this body which he believed was his and which he had been living in for the past ten years was nothing more than a fancy creation of X.A.N.A. It couldn't be true could it? If it weren't for Yumi, he would have called it absurd and a lie, he would have punched Jeremy in the face; if she wasn't there, if the woman who he had loved and watched die all those years ago hadn't been stranding there looking at him with a rare hatred which had caused his blood to turn cold and tears to form in his eyes.

If she hadn't hurt him so much... If he hadn't instantly been willing to accept that he was a fake and that she was real, just to be able to say that she was still alive...

Something shifting in the darkness drew his attention, causing him to open his eyes a crack. The figure was sitting pretty much opposite him in his cell, in an almost identical position. His head was raised to look at the ceiling above him, not that there was much to take in other than the old wooden timbers and slates which formed to roof of what had once been a barn. It had been cleaned out and renovated for create what passed for a prison here.

"Settle down..." Ulrich instructed as he watched his companion fidget some more. "We're going to be here for a while..."  
"They can't keep us locked up here forever!" Kai reasoned jumping to his feet despite his father's request.  
"They can if they believe that we're some kind of X.A.N.A sleeper agents." Ulrich replied letting out a sigh. "They can keep us locked up here for a _very_ long time if that's the case and I'd much rather not spend it with you fidgeting."  
"How can you possibly be so calm?!" The teenager asked his father. "Doesn't any of this bother you in the slightest?"

Ulrich groaned slightly, he would much rather have been left to his own thoughts for a while. He had so many of them and they were so loud and disorderly in his mind right now, that he felt as if he needed about two hours of silence just to get his thoughts back together. It had taken him almost ten years to pull himself together after the last time that his life had been torn apart; now that once again he found his world and everything that he believed in to be turned on it's head, he found himself not particularly wanting to spend time explaining what was currently passing as his thought process to his teenage son.

Still, father duties came before everything else... He let out a sigh but managed to remove all and any traces of frustration from his voice as he did so.

"Of course it bothers me... Everything that I believed just got turned on it's head but panicking is not going to change anything."  
"You're real!" Kai snapped anger marking each of his words but also some fear was hidden behind them. "I know you're real! I saw what happened to mom! How could I have imagined that?!"  
"You know full well the answer to that..."

Kai starred blankly at his father for a few moments. It was harsh perhaps but the boy needed to come to terms with what was currently happening. This wasn't just a misunderstanding or something that they could talk their way out of. This was serious. Even if these cells were to magically disappear, nothing about their situation would have changed. They would still both be faced with the prospect of being in reality some kind of X.A.N.A created human clone of their original selves.

That at least is what they had been told. They had listened dumbstruck and unable to gather their thoughts together in order to answer. Yumi, the woman who they had both loved and believed to be dead and stood there and told the two of them quite calmly that they had been killed by X.A.N.A, ten years ago whilst attempting to flee Paris. Her story matched their version of how she had been killed almost completely, except for in her version, she had ran away to try and distract the A.I's forces, it had backfired and her boyfriend and young son had been discovered and executed.

Everything after that had felt like a blur, they had been brought here by the locals who appeared to be as shocked by the news as they were. Now, they waited here, unsure what was going to happen to them... And it hurt. All these years they had fought X.A.N.A and feared him, now, they had just been told that they could very well be his creations.

"If I am one of those things..." Kai muttered through clenched teeth. "I hope that they kill me."  
"Kai!" His father snapped at him appalled.  
"What?! Don't tell me that you weren't thinking it either!" He gestured at himself. "If I'm some kind of a ticking time bomb X.A.N.A created, then I'd rather be taken out before I can do any damage."

Ulrich starred at his son. Sometimes he forgot just how old his boy was and just how much he had been through. Aelita teased him about it sometimes, saying that all parents treated their kids like they were still children, no matter how old they were. He could only agree with her. There were times though, when he realized that Kai Ishiyama was no longer a child needing protection, he was his own person, loyal, wise and braver than many men twice his age would ever be. He reminded the old Lyoko warrior of the lad's mother...

"What is it?" Kai asked noticing his father's grin.  
"I'm proud of you." Ulrich replied before frowning and growing serious. "But nobody's killing you."  
"And just how do you figure that?" Kai folded his arms across his chest and glanced away. "They'll kill both of us if they think we're with X.A.N.A."  
"No, they won't." The father responded firmly. "I won't let them."

Kai blinked a couple of times as he gawked at his old man. For some reason, he hadn't expected Ulrich to feel so strongly about it or rather, he had believed that he would have the same opinion. This new attitude of his seemed to go almost completely contrary to all of the stances he had previously taken. Even in the darkness, the boy could make out the determination in his father's dark eyes.

"Dad..." Kai spoke in a hushed voice. "But what if I'm not- What if we're not real?"  
"You're real to me." His father replied in a tone which let him know that this wasn't open for debate. "No matter how you look at it. You're my son and that means that I'm going to protect you. Whether you want me to or not."  
"But-"  
"No buts!" Ulrich commanded in an authoritarian voice. "Now Kai, I need you to be brave right now, just like you always are."

The teen looked a little confused before realizing that his father was no longer looking at him but was instead fixing something behind him. He turned around to look over his shoulder only to see Aelita and her children also being lead in by Jeremy, Patrick and a man that they had recently discovered was William Dunbar, married to Elisabeth Delmas who was also accompanying the sad looking procession.

They opened the door into the cell and Aelita and her two children entered. William, Patrick and Jeremy seemed to remained fixated there for a moment before the latter let out a heavy sigh and left, tears brimming behind his glasses as he exited the room. Two of his companions soon joined him, leaving only the dark haired woman starring in the cell sympathetically.

"If you need anything..." She spoke softly as if she could somehow feel their pain. "Just ask."  
"Thanks Sissi." Aelita replied holding her children a little closer.

She offered them a faint smile before turning around herself and leaving. A silence settled in as both Marie and Chip snuggled up a little closer to her. Tears silently streaming down their faces. Their mother hold them close, muttering words of reassurance and comfort to both of them. Kai and Ulrich remained respectfully silent, looking on pitifully, aware of what must have happened without even needing to be told.

Eventually, somehow, through a power which Ulrich had witnessed a few times before and could only describe as "_mother power_", Aelita managed to get both of her youngsters to sleep. They dozed silently, pressed up against the thing which meant the most to them in their world. The pink haired woman smiled down fondly at the two of them, giving each of her children a soft and gentle kiss on the forehead, which seemed to erase all of the evils of the world, if only for a second.

"You too, eh?" Ulrich dared to ask eventually.

Aelita just nodded saying nothing. Some words didn't need to be spoken and silence was required to be able to take them in. The father cast his son a glance to ensure that the lad was going to give their friend a moment to come to terms with everything that had just happened. She would talk when she was ready. What she needed right now was time, the same time which they had required and probably still needed to take it all in. It was hard to accept that you were dead.

The weather seemed to have turned sour all of a sudden, a dampness in the air which the former Lyoko warrior knew all too well had come. There would be rain soon…

"I guess the crops will get watered after all..." Aelita muttered eventually, referring to the potential drought some had been fearing.  
"Alice will be thrilled." Ulrich replied, his voice level and calm as if this were any other discussion.  
"Extra rations for everyone." The young woman agreed seemingly cheering up somewhat.

She turned to look at him. There was pain behind her eyes, more than he would ever like to see there. Next to her, her two children slumbered seemingly without a care in the world. He hoped that they were having sweet dreams, they deserved them… She held them a little closer for a few moments, as Marie seemed to stir somewhat. Ulrich watched in silence, appreciating just how painful it had to be for her right now.

After a little while, Aelita rested her head against the cold wall and let out a heavy sigh. Her gaze fixed the ceiling for a while as she gathered her thoughts.

"They don't know what we are." She declared suddenly not moving from her current position. "They ran some tests. We're not human, we're not robots, we're not specters..."  
"Ah, well… Humanity's overrated anyhow." Ulrich replied in perhaps a misguided attempt to lighten the mood. "What are they going to do?"  
"They don't know." She replied, lowering her head. "Try and figure out what we are. Then-"  
"Yeah..."

Silence. How else could you face the prospect of your own death? If that even applied to them anymore.

Kai was old enough to have understood the implications of their current predicament. The samurai supposed it would have been naive and unfair on his part to believe that Aelita's children – although a few years younger – would be any different. Kai was either asleep or sulking, he couldn't quite tell; best to leave the boy to his own devices. Letting out a frustrated sigh, he ran a hand across his beard as the reality of their current situation began to slowly but surely settle in.

Aelita's declaration brought down any chances of a misunderstanding – Jeremy would have run checks again and again before sending her here with their children. He must have been taring himself apart. When the couple had laughed and embraced, so happy to be reunited, when he'd hugged Kai and told him after so many years that he loved him, he'd thought things might just turn out alright and that their fates might just be taking a turn for the better.

Somehow, he'd thought it might be possible that he'd made a mistake… Could Yumi just have been unconscious? It seemed ridiculous now but he'd dreamed that she might come and open up the cell, hold him close and they would cry at how stupid they'd been believing the other to be dead. As kids, they'd teased each other about never dying… One of them had been incorrect, he'd just been wrong about who it was for all these years.

Bizarrely, he couldn't help but let out a small chuckle as the irony of it all hit home: all these years, fighting against the odds to survive, battling X.A.N.A's forces which had already obliterated most of the world's population, starvation, disease, frost bite, thirst… All obstacles they had overcome together. Somehow, clinging to life in the dark and the cold of the pitiless night; holding onto each other because somewhere deep inside they thought they were the last ones left and that all they had was one another. That had been worth living for.

Now, as it turned out all that they thought had been torn from them was still here. Alive, flesh and blood and they were the corpses. Husks of the people they once were somehow trapped on this dying Earth by the same force which had taken them from the ones they loved and had scourged this planet. Somewhere near Paris, his body lay along with that of his son; buried by the woman they had mourned all these years. Perhaps Aelita and her children had been washed out to the sea or maybe they remained at the bottom of the riverbed which had washed them away from all that was dear to them.

"All this for nothing..." He muttered, irony tasting like bitter poison in his mouth.  
"For nothing..." Aelita agreed in a soft voice.

It was stupid he supposed: for years, he had attempted to snuff out any trace of hope that he had left. Why should he hope for the best when Yumi had been torn from him and the world was falling apart? Things were never going to get better… When he'd come here, he'd dared to hope once more that there might be a future… He could grow old here with Aelita, old friends watching as their children became adults and had children of their own. Then, when the time came, whenever that was, they would be reunited with those that they had lost and would watch from above as this Sanctuary grew and the world slowly recovered.

It occurred to him suddenly, that even without Yumi… He might have been happy and for once, he didn't hate himself for thinking it.

The rain came. It thundered down against the roof and brought a slight chill in the air. They were used to the cold but for some reason, Kai couldn't help but rest against his father as he struggled for warmth. Aelita brought her children over and settled next to him. He passed an arm around her shoulders, holding her close and with her, her two children. For fakes, copies, whatever they were, they felt remarkably real and all of them – he included himself in this – were all remarkably scared.

A noise sometime near dawn drew his attention. It was the sound of keys in the lock. He was somewhere between sleep and being awake. His vision remained a little dull as it adjusted to the darkness of the room. Gradually, he became aware of four bodies leaning against him as they slept soundly. Blinking slightly, he turned his gaze to face the door. There was a figure there, struggling with the keys in the lock.

Fearing the worst, Ulrich gently shook Aelita. It didn't take much to awaken the sleeping mother. She quickly noticed the same thing. A gentle touch shook Chip and Marie from their dreams. Nothing needed to be done to wake up Kai, who sleepily peered over to the door.

The man noticed that they were no longer asleep and placed a finger on his lips, signaling them to be quiet. Frowning slightly, the group sat up, suddenly alert and aware that something untoward and likely unauthorized was going on.

"Patrick?" Aelita asked keeping her voice hushed. "What are you doing?"  
"Springing you." Patrick informed them struggling with the door.  
"Why?" Ulrich asked, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.  
"I don't know what you are but I'll be damned if you're not alive… One way or another."

After a few moments, he succeeded in opening the door. The inmates hesitated for a moment, this all seemed too good to be true considering how quickly they had been held at gunpoint last night. Perhaps, this was a test or a trap of some kind? Ulrich frowned, studying the expression of Patrick. The young man was looking around nervously. He looked worried, constantly glancing over his shoulder.

"Come on you guys! Nobody's on guard right now, so we've got to move!"

They exchanged looks once more before darting out the cell. If nothing else, it would answer all of the questions which they were currently asking themselves.

Patrick was moving quickly but silently. From the way that he was glancing around, they were willing to bet that he didn't have permission to do what he was currently doing. The morning's air was crisp but promised a warmer day to come. The rain from the night before had left a pleasant smell in the air, one which Ulrich couldn't help but breathe in as they ran along. There were some woods to the east of the settlement, it was an easy run and bizarrely one where they encountered no bullets or hostiles…

Instead, they reached a small clearing. Instantly, the group stopped dead as they found themselves faced with their horses, saddled and ready to go. Maya was by a rope to a branch, her tail began wagging a mile a minute as she spotted her owners. They stood there for a moment, everything here was ready for one purpose and one only. It was so obvious and yet a single question lingered on the tips of each of their tongues:

"Why?" Aelita asked, turning to her husband's cousin.  
"You..." Patrick hesitated, trying to find the words apparently. "You love… I've seen it and I don't think X.A.N.A could replicate it. Even if he could, as far as I'm concerned that gives your the right to live."  
"Thank you." Not wanting to waste anymore time, Ulrich took a step forwards towards the horses but found himself being stopped by Patrick.  
"Listen. I don't really care what happens to you guys after this." He explained his expression becoming harsher all of a sudden. "You can go back to the hills and continue eating rats as far as I'm concerned but never come back. I don't want Jeremy to be responsible for killing whatever you are. Because you're not my cousin's wife and his children and you two aren't Kai and Ulrich Stern; you don't have a place here: alive or dead."

Harsh words but the truth, there was no doubting that. With a single nod, he continued on his way, untying the horses. Aelita helped her children onto their mounts before getting onto her own. Kai turned to his father as the former Lyoko warrior sat in the saddle his horse stamped its feet for a moment, he patted it to calm it. They looked back to the man who had set them free and given them a chance to live. The look in his eyes said no 'goodbyes' and just to go. He turned his back and began to head back to the village. Ulrich turned to Aelita, she nodded once in reply.

"Come on." She spoke softly to the kids. "We've got to find somewhere else now."

There were no arguments, no protestations. They still felt a little too empty for any of that. Instead, they simply urged on their horses, making them walk on. Ulrich cast one last glance behind him. Yumi was there… What he wouldn't give to see her face one last time. Just to say 'farewell' and that he was sorry for all that he'd done; she wouldn't have to worry about him anymore. So long apart and now they could never be together? It hardly felt fair.

"Dad?"

There was that voice. His reason for continuing on and not heading back. Others needed him. He couldn't abandon them. Perhaps one day, he would see her again, even if it was in that next place but for now, he had to leave. It was probably for the best anyhow, considering the future he would likely have had there. He was a ghost, he realized, they all were now; wondering alone, dead to all but themselves.

"Time to go, Kai..."  
"What will happen to us now?" Chip asked in his usual small voice.  
"We'll move on. Live somewhere else." Aelita replied simply and plainly.  
"But we're..."  
"We're us." Ulrich cut Marie short. "That's all that matters."

Silence settled in. They each occupied themselves with their own thoughts, not wanting to bother their travel companions with their own worries and concerns; there would be plenty of time for that later. For the time being, they wouldn't be traveling in any particular direction, just somewhere else, anywhere else. They needed space, they needed to get away from everything here so that they could start anew. For the life of him, Ulrich didn't know where to start.

He sped up slightly to ride next to Aelita. There was sorrow behind her eyes, yet she managed a beautiful and soft smile as they continued on their way. Back to square one, all they'd lost was their humanity…

There was a sudden whizzing sound behind them. Ulrich turned his head but saw nothing. Then, a sudden terrible shrill cry cut through the peace of the woods. Chip slipped from his horse, blood pouring out of his side. Aelita shouted with alarm, instantly leaping from her mount and rejoining her son. There was a gaping wound on his left side, deep and severe. Acting instinctively, she placed as much pressure as possible against it to try and slow the bleeding. Her son began making a noise somewhere between a gasp and a sob.

"Shh… Easy Chip! Stay calm!" Aelita requested, her voice shaking with uncharacteristic fear and panic. "Ulrich?"

He was frozen solid, unmoving as he starred at an imposing figure before him. Dark clothes, a once pretty face… Yes, he'd been here before, knew her well. Now she stood there, taring everything that he knew and held dear apart. For the first time in years, he found himself paralyzed.

"Not this… Please not this..." He muttered unable to say anything else.

Yumi couldn't have done this. Yumi shouldn't have but there was no denying the blood on her hands…


	18. Chapter 18

_**Yeah... I'll try to avoid one year gaps in future./**_

The world seemed to stand still for Ulrich Stern as he looked up into the eyes – well, eye singular – of his beloved. There was a cruelty and pitilessness there which didn't belong but not the eye of X.A.N.A which would have somehow made it understandable. He couldn't have said if time were passing or not.

Yumi was in her Lyoko outfit and judging by the presence of her fans, he was willing to bet that they functioned somehow just like they would were she in the virtual world. The red blood which now stained them was a witness to that fact. Slowly, her husband's attention drifted to her weapon in her right hand which had just returned to her, a couple of drops of blood trickled down and hit the floor by her feet. Her expression was blank as if she hadn't even noticed the fact that she could very well just have claimed a life…

Gradually, he became aware of the commotion behind him. Turning slowly, he found himself faced with the horrifying sight of Aelita shredding a piece of cloth from her own sleeve and holding it against her son's gaping wound, applying as much pressure as she could to slow the bleeding. He could already tell that the injury was serious, probably fatal if nothing was done. The child was letting out pained and panicked whimpering sounds as his mother desperately tried to comfort him.

Kai and Marie just sat on their horses poleaxed as they faced the Lyoko warrior. Their attention wondered between their attacker and the youngest of Aelita's children, too frightened and shocked to move.

"Chip… Chip it's mom, I need you to stay awake, alright?" There was desperation in the pink haired woman's voice as she pleaded with her terrified child. "Come on..."

This wasn't right… He wanted to wake up from this nightmare that he was having right here and now. Yumi would never hurt another person, let alone a child… The only son of two of her best friends, she'd been a maid of honor at Aelita's wedding and present at the lad's birth for crying out load!

The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as he felt a cold sensation pass down his back. A lump had formed in his throat making it a little difficult for him to breathe. Somewhere it registered in the back of his mind that for the first time in a very long while, he was actually afraid… He had good reason to. Even when they were younger, Yumi was a formidable fighter. This new her, well, she'd already proven that she was prepared to try and kill.

The confusion and panic slowly gave way in his mind to questions. So many questions… Having so many to ask and yet to be unable to utter even a single one. It hurt in a way he didn't know that he could hurt. Standing there, looking at the woman he loved as she stood motionless as a statue with the blood of one of his best friends' son on her hands and showing no remorse, it made him feel sick.

"How could you?" He asked her in a quiet voice before anger returned. "We were leaving! We were running away!"

Her gaze changed slightly to rest upon him. The way that she looked at him caused him to wonder if she'd even heard his words. The Yumi he knew, the Yumi he loved would be yelling at him had he shouted at her like that. Perhaps it was X.A.N.A or maybe the destruction of all that she held dear which had changed her. Whatever it was, he didn't know… But… Surely, this woman couldn't be the same person that he had fallen in love with all those years ago, not the same woman he'd had a son with…

_"__Hey, Yumi..." He came into the kitchen, one warm spring's day.  
"Yes, Ulrich?" Her expression changed to one of seriousness as she noticed the slightly awkward expression on her face. _

_She had been preparing herself a snack. Well, something which approached one anyway. Some of the things that her body was telling her to eat struck him as plain old disgusting and something worthy of Odd's culinary exploits. He supposed the good news was that their fridge was permanently fully stocked, although right now Yumi was chomping her way through everything and anything edible at an alarming rate. People were already talking around the campus. The rumor that Ulrich Stern, in his final year was going to become a father in the not too distant future had spread rapidly. To be fair, he'd made no effort to put an end to it considering that in a few months it would be impossible to hide anyhow. _

_He sat on the kitchen counter, peering down to see the law book which his girlfriend had left open. It was all Greek to him… He didn't know what he was going to do with his life after school yet but the law definitely wasn't it. _

_"__What is it?" Yumi stirred him from his thoughts.  
"I was just thinking..." He muttered looking down at the floor for an instant before turning back to her. "You and me, uh…"  
"Spit it out." She requested folding her arms, slightly amused. "I won't bite."  
"Okay..." His voice trailed off for a moment, whilst he summoned his courage. "I was wondering if you wanted to make it official." _

_She looked up at him a little surprised; he didn't know what she'd been expecting but it wasn't this. _

_At this point in his life, his existence was a little bit complicated and a little more precarious than he would have liked. Whilst he was still a student at Kadic, he was no longer boarding there after his parents (or more particularly his father) had cut him off and stopped paying for his lodgings; instead, Mr. and Mrs. Ishiyama had been kind enough to allow him to live at their house with their daughter. Whilst his relationship with the family was good – better than he ever thought it would be – he sometimes couldn't help but think that his relationship with Yumi could be a little better defined. _

_"__Are you asking me to marry you?" She raised an eyebrow, hesitating slightly.  
"Maybe." Despite his nerves and not wanting to make things awkward, he forced himself to look her in the eyes. "There are alternatives. You know, those PAX things."_

_He didn't particularly care what form it took so long as it was both unambiguous and not precarious. For once in his life, he wanted some stability, especially since, well… In a few months he was going to be father. The title 'boyfriend' was one that he had worn for quite some time now but found that given the current situation, it didn't seem to be quite enough. Of course, maybe Yumi wouldn't see things that way. _

_"__Honestly Ulrich, I would love to." She spoke after a few moments before pausing for a moment. "But you realize that it'll get people talking… We're young, it's not exactly the norm."_  
_"I know but I don't care." He replied shaking his head. "We've never exactly been 'normal' have we?"_  
_"No… I suppose not." There was a moment's silence as both of them thought back to their shared history. "In that case, yes Ulrich." _  
"Aelita!"

The scream rung through his ears bringing him back to the terrifying reality that he now found himself in. Somehow, in those few seconds that he had come trapped in his memories, Yumi had had enough time to attack again. This time, her target was the pink haired woman. It made sense, after Chip, she was the most vulnerable as she struggled to apply pressure on her son's wound. She'd turned pale, it was only then that he noticed the blood tricking down from her right shoulder, where a large gash had just been opened by one of his wife's fans.

Now, Kai stood between the Geisha and injured Lyoko princess, the latter unable to move away from her son for fear of him bleeding out. Yumi stared at the teen before her. He stood with his arms out in front of him, practically pleading.

"Please, mom… It's me: Kai." The teen spoke slowly, with uncertainty. "Your son. Please. Stop this..."

For a moment, Ulrich wondered if their son's words might actually be having some sort of effect on Yumi. She'd loved the boy from the moment that he was born and whilst she had always been firm but fair as far as he was concerned, not once had she so much as raised her voice against him. Surely, despite everything, she wouldn't harm Kai. There had to be some residual love there.

He couldn't do anything. The only way for him to stop this as he saw it would be to attack Yumi. He'd never hurt her before at least not on purpose… He just couldn't bring himself to even go anywhere near his wife. Fighting her felt wrong in every single bone in his body. There had to be another way…

In a second, Kai was on the ground, dazed. All it took was a single blow from the back of Yumi's hands. The body skidded across the dirt, scraping himself as he went. He collided roughly with a tree. Ulrich heard the thump only too well. It was the boy's cry which really struck a cord with him however along with the pained look that he gave his mother. Blood trickled from several cuts and scratches he had received but most noticeably from his nose.

There were tears behind the lad's eyes suddenly and his father understood. He'd seen the teen take much harder blows, laser burns from some of X.A.N.A's monsters, more than a boy his age should ever have to endure and not even complain. This was mild in the scheme of things and yet here he was in tears. It wasn't the blow itself so much as who had dealt it, to have someone he loved, someone who like his father he had dreamed for years of seeing again strike him so hardly with the sole intent of hurting him… That was unbearable and caused tears to flow down the boy's cheeks. He did the only other thing he could do in such a situation, he turned to his father.

Ulrich's eyes met the pleading ones of his son as they begged him to do something to stop this. Yumi was approaching steadily, targeting Aelita and her injured son. She drew her fans, preparing to deal yet another blow. Ulrich didn't quite understand the physics behind them but at this close-range, they would likely take off a head.

He closed his eyes for a second, readying himself for what was about to happen and praying that somewhere, someone might forgive him for it…

The former Lyoko rushed forwards as fast as his legs could carry him. There wasn't much distance between him as his target which suited him rather well because if she saw him coming and he rushed into those fans of hers, well, there wouldn't be much of him left. Closing his eyes, he tried to forget about just who he was charging into and who he would be hurting. If this worked out that was…

Leaping forwards, he connected roughly with Yumi with all of his weight. It should logically have knocked her down. She was unprepared and whilst the former Lyoko warrior was strong, she wasn't strong enough to be able to withstand such a rough impact. In reality, it felt rather a lot like hitting a brick wall, albeit one which eventually gave way and hit the ground roughly. He still felt as if he had come off the worse however.

His shoulder hurt badly but at least he'd achieved his goal of knocking her off of her feet. Yumi crashed roughly to the ground and for a moment, Ulrich couldn't bring himself to move as he realized that he'd hurt her. She looked back at him, her one remaining eye full of anger. What had happened to them?

He should have been ready for what came next but the horror of having attacked his own wife had paralyzed him once more. No matter what she had done or the uncontrollable rage which seemed to have taken over her, he shouldn't have hurt her. Every bone in his body told him that this was wrong. By harming her, bizarrely, he was inflicting a pain he couldn't quite understand on himself. There was something inside of him which told him to just throw himself down onto his knees and beg for forgiveness from the woman he loved.

"Ulrich watch it!"

To his shear amazement, he was pulled back by Marie from her horse. She was a little too slow however as a sharp pain erupted on the left part of his chest as one of Yumi's fans raked his flesh. The injury wasn't that deep but the blade certainly was sharp and made short work of tearing through his shirt and the skin beneath it. Gritting his teeth to avoid yelling in pain, he had just enough time to dodge one of the Lyoko warrior's fists as she lashed out once more. There was an unparalleled violence in her attacks, a wildness which he had never before witnessed in her, even when she was in a bad mood.

This just wasn't Yumi, not his Yumi… She would never have hurt their son. She wouldn't be doing this. So why wasn't he stopping her?

A little more alert, he managed to dodge some of the incoming blows. His eyes briefly found Chip, the lad was still conscious but only just. He was struggling to breath and letting out frantic gasps as he tried to do so. It as a painful reminder of just how dangerous the Lyoko warrior could be, especially given that she was obviously aiming to kill.

"Ulrich!" Aelita's voice was shaking; angry, desperate and nearing the end of her rope. "That isn't Yumi!"  
"How can you possibly know that?!" He yelled at her still dodging his attacks. "She's my wife!"  
"Right now she's trying to kill us!"

He turned his attention back to Yumi. She showed no signs of relenting in her attacks. He looked into her dark eye, where once he had found love, a warm welcome and compassion. Now, there was only an anger the likes of which he had never seen before. There was no doubting that she was trying to kill him; just like she would the rest if the group. Anyone else by now, he would have attacked and probably done his best to seriously injure if not murder. Of course, this wasn't anyone else…

"Please don't make me do this..." He pleaded in a broken voice.

He wasn't all that sure that she could even understand what he was saying to her. So far, his wife had remained utterly silent, barely even reacting to the few blows that she'd received. Her fans connected with him once more, this time giving him a gash on the left forearm. He looked down to see the blood, the same blank expression on her face. His words really meant nothing to her.

Clenching his teeth, he fought back. He was slower than her, weaker… He realized that quickly. He had been fighting for so long now but had never once met his match. His teenage years spent battling X.A.N.A in both real life and the virtual world had made him resilient, his practice of pencak silat gave him technique and this past decade had made him ruthless when it came to fights. He just wasn't as good as Yumi.

Every blow he swung, every time he tried to dodge, she seemed to be a step ahead of him. She would parry his blows and launch her own attack which he only just managed to avoid. He gasped as her fist (thankfully not one of her weapons) connected with his left eye causing him to stagger back dazed. It felt like a sledgehammer rather than a fist. Oh great, now she'd drawn her fans again! He'd been so afraid of hurting Yumi… Now he realized there was very little chance of that.

Out of the corner of his eye – the one that wasn't currently blurry that was – he made out some movement it was Aelita. She charged Yumi, using a large tree branch as a weapon. Taken by surprise, the Japanese woman crashed to the ground heavily. Ulrich turned to the pink haired woman. She was furious, no doubt because of Chip. Hang on, if she was here, then… For a moment, he feared the worst but the presence of both Marie and Kai by their youngest member's side reassured him somewhat.

He exchanged a glance with Aelita. She simply nodded. Yumi was bleeding. Not severely but being whacked by a whopping great branch hadn't done her any good. There was a small cut on her lip now but she paid no attention to the blood. Her eyes drifted between them, sizing them up. Still, something inside of Ulrich caused him to hesitate.

"Yumi..." He pleaded desperately one last time. "Please, stop this. Just let us go. We don't want to hurt you."  
"Speak for yourself..." Whoa… Aelita actually sounded pretty terrifying… "Right now, I don't give a damn who she is and neither should you. She just stepped over the line."

He had never known Aelita to be so… Angry… Her entire face seemed different. Contorted by a mixture of pain and unbridled rage. There was no trace of the angelic girl they had rescued from a digital world all those years ago. This was someone else entirely; a woman who had just witnessed one of her children being cut down by someone who she had considered one of her best friends. Someone had just switched the rage button on for perhaps the first time and Ulrich really didn't want to be in the way of it when she unleashed her full fury.

Yumi seemed unfazed, quickly rushing them as if the warning hadn't even registered. Aelita swung her club/tree branch at her managing to block one of her fans. He opted for trying to attack her from the side. Close but his wife was lightning fast. She spun round him, threatening to windmill kick his friend as she did so. The pink haired girl narrowly managed to avoid the blow, responding by attempting to hit the geisha once more.

They exchanged blows for a couple of moments. It was clear that they were faring much better than Ulrich had been by himself although they still were unable to land a definitive hit on Yumi. They'd fought specters. It wasn't easy but it could be done, if you ganged up on one and hit it enough times, eventually it would dissipate. This was something else though; she wasn't human that was for sure or at least not fighting like one. Perhaps it was to do with her Lyoko apparel. Whatever the case, they simply couldn't touch her.

She threw her fans. There was a crack all of a sudden. Ulrich raised his eyes as the branch from one of the trees above him fell. It hit him hard, knocking him to the ground. He winced as the weight pinned him down. His ribs screamed at him, informing him that whatever he was doing wasn't great for his health and that he'd better stop if he wanted to live. Panic flashed in Aelita's eyes as she realized she was alone facing a seemingly indestructible Yumi. Still, despite the odds, she didn't back down. What choice did they have? Fight or die or as he suspected it might very well be, die fighting.

Aelita wasn't as strong or as fast as Yumi was, even on the best of days. It was true that life in the wilderness had made her more robust than she might otherwise have been but she was still no match for the geisha. A well placed punch sent her flying backwards, literally. She must have traveled twenty feet before landing on the ground, stunned.

After a few moments, she groaned in pain and looked up. Her eyes met his and a silent but terrifying understanding passed between them: they couldn't win…

"Kai!" Ulrich turned to his son. "Marie! Get on your horses and run!"  
"What? Dad no!" Was Kai's only panicked response.  
"We're not leaving!" Marie resolution was as solid as steel.

Why did their kids have to be so heroic? Right now neither of the parents wanted them to be. They should be running for their lives, spurring the horses on as fast as they would go. Aelita struggled to reach her son. The young lad was still clinging to life bravely, he could do little else but was gradually growing quieter as time passed. The boy's mother practically shoved her daughter away, it was desperation driving her as she tried to convince the children that it was time to leave.

Yumi was armed once more and preparing her fans. Gathering his strength, her husband managed to get back to his feet, the action freed him from the weight of the branch. He was going to have a lot of bruises in the morning there was no denying it, although frankly he would be surprised if he lived to see it. Rushing forwards, he managed to clear the distance separating them in a couple of strides. It was pointless trying to defeat her but perhaps he could buy them some time.

Catching up with her, he managed to grab both of her wrists before she'd had enough time to let loose her weapons. The geisha stared at him for a moment, apparently a little surprised by his intervention. Then, she simply pushed against him. He was astounded by her strength, it wasn't long before he found himself being pushed back gradually.

"Get moving!" He yelled, struggling desperately. "Run!"  
"Not without you!" Kai sounded desperate.

Now came the moment he had always dreaded. This was an order they'd always talked about potentially having to give. Time and time again, they'd made the children swear that when the time came – if it ever did – they would follow that one simple order without question, without hesitation. They'd always prayed that the time was never going to come but now that it was here, would they listen? For the moment they certainly weren't.

Ideally, he would have liked all of the children and Aelita to have left together and to leave him to buy them some time. As fate would have it though, Chip couldn't be moved and there was no way in Hell that the boy's mother was abandoning him and he couldn't leave her here, not alone… It would feel too much like that day he'd lost Yumi again and he didn't think he could cope with that a second time.

"Kai! God dammit! Get on the damn horse and go!" Ulrich screamed at his son.

This was no way to say 'goodbye'. There should have been hugs and tears. They should have told their children how proud they were and how much they loved them before sending them off to somewhere they were safe. Screaming at them to run into uncertainty so as to escape from certain death was far from ideal…

Fortunately, his harsh words and desperate tone seemed to do the trick. Shaking, Kai got to his feet, putting his hands on Marie's shoulders, he gently guided her over to the horses. He helped her into her saddle before quickly climbing onto Yama's, he gave his father one last look before spurring the black horse on. They both began galloping along, slowly disappearing into the distance.

He turned his attention back to Yumi, she was literally grinding him into the dirt. Pushing him back and down. He ended up on his knees. He gritted his teeth, aware that he wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer. He glanced over his shoulder, his eyes met those of Aelita. She nodded slowly before holding her injured son closer.

"I'm sorry..." He breathed out.  
"Yeah… So am I." She replied softly.

A powerful kick to the ribs sent him flying backwards into the ground only a few feet in front of his friend and her son. It took him a couple of moments to pull himself together. Yumi was coming ever closer, walking steadily. He tried to get to his feet once more so as to be able to meet his foe in combat but found that his legs wouldn't oblige. He winced as his ribs ached from the blow.

He was going to die. That suddenly dawned on him. So was Aelita. So was Chip. Perhaps he should have been more afraid than he was but for some reason, there was only sorrow. He had never wanted any of this to happen, no sane person would. As his eyes fixed the remaining one of Yumi Ishiyama, his only love as she came towards them, never stopping, never hesitating, cruel and merciless as he had never known her. His only question was:

"Why?" He muttered some blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth. "Why are you doing this?"

She stopped suddenly. No emotion was present on her face and yet it was like someone had just pressed the 'off' button, powering her down. There was a certain blankness behind her orb as it momentarily seemed to lose focus. Was she lost in her thoughts or had the reality of what she had just done suddenly hit home? The silence which followed seemed to weigh heavily even although it likely only lasted a few seconds. Then, her eye started to move once more. Her gaze drifted from him to Aelita but seemed to completely ignore Chip.

"You are hostile elements. You must be eliminated." She explained in a metallic like voice.

He knew those words. He'd heard them repeated enough. So many times, when confronted with a specter, they had spoken those words to him. They were intended for humans, especially those who were fighting against the A.I. If Yumi was using them then it could mean only one thing…

Pain turned to anger as he realized just what lay beneath the flash. It was one thing for Yumi to have been murdered but to have the being which had been the one to end her life now in command of her body or at least of a copy of it was adding salt to the wound. She unfolded her fans, ready to launch them.

He felt Aelita grip his sleeve. It was an instinctive action, looking for some comfort before it ended. He closed his eyes, unable to bare the sight of his wife any longer. He placed his hand over his friend's squeezing it tightly. He tried to block out the world around him. It was hard to ignore the whizzing sound of your impending doom (or that of your friend) coming towards you or that of her son still desperately struggling to breathe.

Hopefully, they had bought Kai and Marie enough time to make it out; they were going to be alone now… For some reason, he suddenly found himself longing to see his son once more. Just to hold him close and tell him how proud he was and how much he loved him…

There was the sound of metal meeting metal. Ulrich's eyes opened a crack curious as to see just what had caused such a sound. It certainly wasn't the sound of fans meeting flesh that was for sure. Instead, he found himself faced once more with a very familiar sword which was so heavy looking it was a wonder that its owner managed to wield it. For a moment, he simply gawked at it, unable to process what had just happened. Yumi's fans which had been speeding towards them carrying death now lay in the dirt uselessly.

A hand on his shoulder caused him to look up to a pair of dark eyes he felt he knew. Next to him, Aelita stirred, probably just as confused as he was.

"William?" She asked, not daring to move.  
"Yeah. It's me." He spoke softly his eyes full of concern. "You guys hold on. The cavalry's here."  
"What cavalry?" Ulrich looked around expecting something a little more than just his old rival.  
"Laser arrow!"

How long had it been since he'd heard that war cry? Years… It wasn't as if he'd had any reason to hear it off of Lyoko. It could only mean one thing however.

Two small dart like arrows flew over his head, hitting Yumi in the left shoulder. She staggered backwards but showed no signs of any pain. A couple of seconds later, a giant purple cat strolled over calm as could be. He was taller but for some unfathomable reason maintained that same old daft haircut. Still scrawny though… Ulrich and Aelita exchanged a glance, neither quite capable of believing what their eyes were telling them but not quite able to deny the spectacle either.

"Come on guys!" That same cheery voice, although thankfully it was a little deeper thanks to puberty. "Aren't you going to say 'hi' to your best cat buddy?"  
"Odd." William cut his friend short, his voice grave, letting the Lyoko warrior know this was no time for fun and games. "Chip's hurt pretty bad."

Odd's face changed almost instantly. The humor and smile vanished, replaced by frown and a look of determination as he faced Yumi once more. It was strange how little he'd changed in that respect. For all that he was a practical joker, when things got serious, you could always count on Odd Della-Robia. He raised his fists, pointing both of his lethal weapons at the geisha who despite her wounds showed no signs of pain or backing down. William stepped out in front of them, acting as a barrier.

"Don't you take another step." Odd advised, seeing her heading back over to her fans. "What's gotten into you?"  
"It's X.A.N.A..." Ulrich muttered, unable to take his eyes off of his wife. "Not Yumi..."  
"We've known her for years." William replied clenching his sword a little tighter.  
"Well she isn't anymore!" Aelita replied.  
"Last warning!" Odd shouted as she was virtually upon her weapons once more.

Yumi looked up. His angry words had reached her, there was no doubting that. There was no fear, no anger, nothing to betray her any emotions behind her eyes. That was because Ulrich knew that X.A.N.A had killed all that. A few moments later, she was going for the fans again.

He looked away, knowing all too well what was about to happen. The only thing that could happen. The only way that they would all live to see the next day. Odd didn't say a word. There was only a decidedly sinister whizzing sound as a series of laze arrows were let fly. He heard Aelita gasp briefly and pull herself a little closer. He looked back to see the body of his wife lying inertly on the floor, some blood coming out of several wounds on her stomach. William let out a sigh and approached slowly, nudging her to ensure that she was dead. She was of course, he doubted that anyone could have survived that, even Yumi.

He gradually became aware of more people rushing around. Slowly gathering his thoughts, he looked around. There were several people with first aid kits huddled around Aelita and her young son. They sounded concerned, no surprise there.

Painfully, he picked himself up off of the floor. His injuries stung painfully as did his joints as he got to his feet. His entire body just wanted him to lie down and not move. He was bleeding quite severely as he walked on shaky legs over towards one of the horses. The animal was slightly spooked from all of the commotion but hopefully not too much to make him impossible to ride.

"Ulrich, what are you doing?" Odd asked him concern filling his voice.  
"I need to find the kids..." Ulrich muttered, still managing to heave himself onto the saddle. "Before they've gone too far."  
"We'll do that." William declared turning away from Yumi's body for a moment. "You need medical attention."  
"No." He winced not denying that he needed attention but rather rejecting their offer to go after the kids. "They won't trust you… It'll have to be me."  
"You're in no condition..."

He wasn't allowed enough time to finish. Ulrich spurred his horse off, galloping off in the direction his son and Marie had traveled in. Odd and William exchanged glances, wondering whether or not they should give chase. Aelita was paying little attention. She trusted Ulrich as much as she could to find the children. Her attention lay with the child in her arms, desperately clinging to life…

She closed her eyes for a moment, simply wishing not to be.


	19. Chapter 19

The walk down the corridor of the town's main hospital (which in practice was a converted house of which the bathroom had been turned into the main operating theater) seemed to unusually long for Odd Della-Robbia, maybe that was because his friend was currently moving at a snail's pace, lost in his own thoughts. William was a nice guy when you got to know him but he did have a slight tendency to be a little… Melancholic at times. Then again, the Lyoko warrior supposed that given what had happened only a few hours ago, it was completely understandable.

"You know we didn't have a choice Will." He declared in a quiet voice. "That wasn't our Yumi."  
"I know that… It's just- The real Yumi, she'd been dead for ten years and we've never known."  
"Yeah..." Odd was quiet for a moment, looking down at his feet. "Sucks but Aelita, Ulrich and the kids are alive. That's got to mean something."

William didn't answer as he continued to carry the tray of food. Odd decided that it would be wise to remain quiet and allow his fellow Lyoko Warrior some time to himself. After all, he knew that he had loved Yumi which had naturally created sparks between him and Ulrich. Even for the months after they'd turned off the supercomputer, he had continued his romantic pursuit to a certain degree. Of course, after a while he had realized that it was fruitless and found a love of his own.

Of course, that wouldn't stop it from hurting, nothing would. If he kept on smiling it was only so that others wouldn't see that deep down inside he missed his friend and that firing those few laser arrows had probably been the single hardest thing that he had ever done.

They entered a room, the midday light made it bright and welcoming, even if the sight they were greeted was rather less so. Aelita sat on a chair next to a makeshift hospital bed where her son lay unconscious but alive. He was plugged into several machines which monitored his vital signs. It had been touch and go but after some blood transfusions and their local doctors working desperately all through the morning, they had managed to save the lad. Since then, his mother had scarcely left his side, resolute in waiting until he awoke. There had been no arguing with her so now, William and Odd had decided to bring her some lunch/breakfast.

She gave them a tired and jaded smile as she looked up to see them in the doorway. Aelita herself hadn't escaped the confrontation uninjured. She sat there in a vest with her right shoulder tightly bandaged up after the stitches which she'd been given to treat the wound Yumi's fans had inflicted on her. Apparently she was lucky it had only been a glancing blow, a little more on target and it would have been her arm.

"Hi guys." She spoke in a soft voice.  
"Hey there princess." Odd greeted her in his usual loud and cheery tone. "We thought we'd bring you some lunch."  
"Thanks..." The pink haired woman eyed up the food on the plate for a moment before letting out a sigh. "-But I'm not hungry."  
"Oh well! More for me!"

They pulled up some chairs at the foot of the bed and sat down. She lowered her gaze, fixing the wooden floorboards. William and Odd exchanged glances, unsure what to say or how to say it. It had been almost 10 years since they had last seen their friend and now, to be with them in such dire circumstances, it was all a little awkward. Even the chattiest member of their former group remained silent.

"Still got your appetite, have you Odd?" Aelita eventually asked in a quiet voice, still not raising her eyes to meet him.  
"Yeah… You should have seen me the first few years here when we had to ration everything! I was climbing the walls!" He replied imitating the motion with his hands.  
"Between him, Samantha and Lucas… They must have eaten half of what we produced." William agreed.  
"Samantha?" Aelita's head shot up at the mention of yet another familiar name. "And who's Lucas."  
"Oh right! Ten years of the apocalypse worth of catching up to do." Odd let out a chuckle rubbing the back of his neck. "Samantha happens to be my girlfriend and Lucas is our son. We've got another one on the way."  
"Congratulations." She replied sincerely, trying to sound as cheerful as possible.

It felt so odd to be in a room here with them again. For so long, she had believed them both to be dead. It had seemed unfeasible that any of the other Lyoko warriors asides herself and Ulrich had survived, perhaps because they had struggled so desperately to cling to life and had almost failed so many times. Yet now they discovered that all but one of their original gang was still alive and that they had done so considerably better than their two lost companions had.

She had assumed that they would only meet again in the afterlife – if such a place existed. Now, here in this place they had been reunited. Well mostly, Yumi was dead and Ulrich was still unaccounted for.

The young woman realized that they had a lot of catching up to do. It had been over six years since she'd last heard from any of them. Odd was a father now; she was sure he'd be a great one but it did strike her as a rather terrifying thought. For some reason, she had herself picturing purple-cat babies… What an odd thing to imagine.

"What happened to you guys?" She asked after a few moments' pause, looking from one to the other.  
"Long story..." William muttered.  
"Very long." Odd agreed letting out a sigh as memories he would rather have forgotten resurfaced. "I left as soon as I got Jeremy's message. I was lucky, working out in Nice, I was a fair way away from Paris. I called every number I had in my directory – you know how I never clean that thing out – tried to get people organized..."

Aelita could remember that much of course. She had been with Jeremy up until the point when they had agreed to meet up with Odd.

She knew that he had survived for several months when humanity still had armies. He had been gathering followers, taking them somewhere safe. The last time that she'd heard from him, his destination had been Bordeaux. Given that the last she'd heard, the city had been swamped by krabs and bloks, she guessed that that plan hadn't worked out so well.

What she knew far less about and was eager to learn was just what had happened to them in the five almost six years now that she had been separated from Jeremy. She had been told by Patrick how this place had come to be but now that she knew that it was her friends who were the legendary 'founders' it put things into perspective and she found herself wanting to know more. Perhaps, both she and Ulrich should have guessed earlier that the other Lyoko warriors were involved somehow but having given up all hope of finding them alive, they had dismissed the possibility – foolishly, now it would seem.

"We found Jeremy walking in circles." Odd recalled looking out the window into the vastness of the world which now belonged to X.A.N.A. "He hadn't slept since losing you. We had to practically drag him away… I'm sorry Aelita, we told him that you and the kids were dead. It was the only way he'd come."  
"I understand..." She muttered in a quiet voice.  
"With his help, we managed to shield ourselves from X.A.N.A. He can't see us here." William took over pointing at the antennae. "It just reads as all clear. These past few years, we've been gathering survivors, trying to find a way to fight back!"

Aelita didn't say that to the east they had seen precious little of that to the east. Perhaps their efforts had been concentrated on the rest of France or some of the neighboring countries. She supposed that it must have been a nightmare trying to track down the surviving humans in the wilderness for the very reason that those that hadn't been exterminated by X.A.N.A had gone so far underground they were practically untraceable.

An awkward silence settled in. They had once exchanged amicably about everything and nothing. Aelita owed a lot to both men: Odd had been one of those to save her from her digital world whilst William had been the first to encourage her to pursue her career and passion in music. Still, despite the fact that they hadn't been together in years, the conversation seemed to have dried up right now. William mentioned having a family and what a family! Four kids, three daughters and a son. Still, much after that nobody was in the mood for talking.

"Where's Jeremy?" Odd asked suddenly.  
"Huh?" Aelita looked up as she was awoken from her daydreams. "Oh… He was running checks on Yumi or whatever that thing was to find out why she suddenly snapped."  
"Right..." The purple cat hesitated a moment before standing up. "I'll just go and check on him. Call me if Chip wakes up."  
"We will." Aelita promised.

He left the two of them, intent on tracking down the now grown Einstein. He knew where he would be of course: where he always was when he wasn't on an away mission. Their own laboratory… Usually Odd avoided going there. He'd never really been that into technology in the first place but the whole X.A.N.A taking over the world thing had permanently disgusted him. That and every time he went there Jeremy wouldn't stop nagging him for touching the various computers and instruments. Today however he was making an exception. There was one for every rule after all.

Odd walked briskly, not wanting to leave Aelita any longer than he had to. The old refectory wasn't far anyhow, nothing in this village was. He entered carefully aware that interrupting an experiment could potentially be dangerous for his health. His ears only registered some rather calm chatting from two familiar voices, the resident geniuses (minus one now that Jeremy's wife had rejoined them). They were looking at streams of code on a computer screen that only they could understand. Sometimes, he couldn't help but wonder if they weren't making some of it up as they went along.

He had to clear his throat to draw their attention. Jeremy looked over his shoulder, the dark circles under his eyes spoke of how little he had slept and perhaps of some of the tears he'd had reason to shed recently.

"Not now Odd." He spoke exhaustion causing him to snap. "I'm busy."  
"Yeah. So's your wife, sitting next to your only son who's still unconscious in hospital!" Odd snapped back putting some force behind his voice so that Jeremy knew he wasn't joking.  
"I'll go run some more scans." Laura offered quickly leaving the room.

That left the two old friends standing alone in the room together. A cool atmosphere descended on them. One which both men loathed but could do nothing about. This was going to be one of those situations which ended in a fight and there was precious little either of them could do about it. They'd known each other long enough to know that the one thing every member in their group had in common was stubbornness. It had been both an invaluable asset to them and in some cases almost the cause of their demise.

"You think I don't know that?!" The anger in the blonde man's voice was clear. "Unfortunately, unlike you Odd. The fate of this entire community depends on what I do here!"  
"Jeremy, right now that doesn't matter." Odd made the effort to try and keep his voice level and to remain calm. If they both lost it then there was no way this thing would end the way he wanted it to. "Aelita's hurt. Your son almost died and your daughter's still unaccounted for. Your family needs you right now. More than any of the rest of us do. Laura can handle whatever you're working on."  
"No. This is too important."

Laura was probably in earshot of that remark but thankfully chose to remain out of the way. Jeremy didn't mean what he said. Odd knew that much. He had utmost faith in his lab partner. Unfortunately, whenever Einstein got upset – like quite a few people – he tended to end up snapping and saying things which he didn't really mean and wouldn't dare utter in other circumstances. Anger and sadness could do strange things to a person, no matter how high an I.Q. they had.

The Lyoko warrior let out a sigh and ran a hand through his blonde hair. He had been anticipating a difficult struggle but wasn't about to give up quite yet. He would have to delicate – Jeremy was beyond upset and had good reason to be – but firm, there was no way he was going to let him abandon his family after so long trying to get them back.

"Jeremy, they need you."  
"They've coped just fine for the past five years." Jeremy retorted, turning his back and getting back to his work.  
"You and I both know there's a difference between surviving and 'being alive'." Odd replied folding his arms as he struggled to contain his temper.  
"Ulrich will be back soon enough. From what I saw, he'll be just fine at comforting her." The words were bitter and angry."  
"Cut the crap, that's not what's bothering you." Finally, all his patience deserted him. "Why won't you go talk to your wife and sit with your child?!"  
"Because I ordered them killed!"

Those five words hung in the air, weighing down on them like a ton of bricks. Odd simply stared at his friend in disbelief. When the scans had shown that all of their old friends and their children were digital, they had all known somewhere deep down that that could only lead to one conclusion and it wasn't a pretty one. Still, to actually hear Jeremy confess to have given the order, it came as something of a shock and somehow explained his current attitude. After all, his decision had cost them all dearly.

They had come terrifyingly close to killing some of their own. There was one man to thank for their continued survival and sadly. He had paid the ultimate price. They'd caught on quite quickly that Patrick had let their five prisoners go. Following him had been easy. Yumi's battle suit was missing so they'd naturally assumed that she'd just gone to hunt them down. Then they'd found the body. The good news – if it could be called that was that the young man likely hadn't suffered – the blow from on of her fans had cut clean through his chest, striking his heart and killing him within seconds.

"You know why Patrick let them go Odd?" Jeremy asked practically screaming. "Do you know why my cousin's dead? Because I told him I was going to have to kill them. All of them, not just Aelita and Ulrich but Kai, Marie and Chip too! I was going to murder my own wife and children!"

Odd couldn't think of anything to say. How could he possibly respond to such a confession? It explained something about why he'd been so reluctant to see them again. There was the logical part of his brain which knew how dangerous X.A.N.A could be. They had heard tales from some of the survivors about how one specter in the form of a friend could wipe out an entire pocket of resistance. Jeremy had a lot of lives riding upon his judgment and couldn't afford to make a single mistake. Still, what an order to give… It must have torn him apart. Odd tried to imagine himself in the same situation, he certainly couldn't have given the order…

There were tears now behind the genius' eyes. He removed his glasses and turned away in an attempt to hide them. Odd rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Perhaps it would be best to leave right now. He was half way out of the door before his friend's voice drew his attention once more:

"How can I face her after that?"  
"Jeremy..." He let out a heavy sigh, turning back to face his friend. "That was an impossible choice to make. You did what you thought would save us… Things turned out pretty bad – no point lying – but they could have been a lot worse. Please, just go to her, if only to say 'sorry'."  
"She'll just spit in my face." Came the broken reply.  
"Aelita? Spit? I don't think so." Humor didn't have much of an effect so Odd softened his voice once more. "Come on Einstein, you've got to try something. Otherwise you really will lose her forever."

The blonde genius hesitated a moment before looking up at his friend. His eyes were red and puffy but the tears had stopped.

A moment or two later, he excused himself with Laura before shakingly following Odd. The walk back to the infirmary was slower than the one to the laboratory but Jeremy needed to take his time and his friend knew better than to hurry him. With any luck, Chip would have awoken by the time they got back or at least shown some more signs of recovering from his ordeal. That would definitely help raise spirits although with both Patrick and Yumi – even if she was a fake of some kind – dead, it was still a dark day for them all.

Jeremy pushed the door to the infirmary open slowly. He could hear the sound of his wife chatting idly with William. They stopped as soon as he became visible. Silence hung in the air as his blue eyes met those of Aelita. Despite everything that she had been through, to him, she still appeared as angel, just as she had done when he'd first turned the super-computer on all those years ago. It seemed inconceivable that she could forgive him after what he'd almost done. She would know of course; she'd have worked it out herself and even if she hadn't, one of the others would likely have informed her of just how close to death she had come.

He wanted nothing more than to turn tail then and there and run. Something caused his legs to remain firmly rooted to the ground however as if they were anchors. Slowly, his gaze traveled to his only son. The boy's features mirrored his own but there he lay still clinging to life. He had been so close to death but had pulled through. He had missed them so much but now that they were before him, he didn't know what to say.

Odd pushed him gently, encouraging him to enter the room. His legs were shaking as he approached his wife. He didn't know what was going through her mind; anger, resentment, loathing, hatred… They would all be utterly legitimate emotions for her to feel right now. Sadly, he wasn't telepathic and didn't have the foggiest if he was about to be punched in the face or be given a warm hug.

"I..." He tried to speak but the words simply wouldn't come.  
"I know..." Came Aelita's voice as soft and gentle as it could be.  
"I'm so so sorry." It wouldn't be enough, it could never be enough.  
"I know." She repeated.

She'd stood up and they were now only a few steps away from each other. He'd never been so scared in his life as he was when he dared look into her eyes. He found none of the anger that he'd expected to see. Instead, there was fear which mirrored his own but something else also; relief and some sadness but above all love. They'd been separated for so long and almost permanently that he didn't know how to react to having her back with him once more.

Fortunately, Aelita was several steps ahead of him, as she always was. She bridged the gap between them and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him close. Shocked, he didn't immediately respond but found himself returning the gesture quite instinctively. Some tears trickled down his cheeks as he found himself somewhat overwhelmed by the tidal wave of emotions which struck him. He could happily have spent the rest of his days like that, with her safe and close.

"We'll give you two some time." Odd declared, prompting them to separate briefly.  
"Thanks." Aelita replied giving them both a nod as they left.

Once both Odd and William had walked off. Jeremy slowly and carefully headed over to his son's bedside. The boy lay rather motionless under the sheets. His breathing was a little heavy but nothing to worry about apparently. It was so strange to see Christopher again. The last time his father had laid eyes upon him, he'd been tiny, only seven years old. Five years on, almost six, his son was now the same age he had been when he'd first turned on the supercomputer and laid eyes on the woman who would eventually become his wife.

"He's a survivor." Jeremy muttered gently stroking the boy's long and messy blonde hair.  
"He's had to be." The pink haired woman replied. "We all have."  
"I know. I should have been there." He lowered his head with shame. There wasn't a day that went by when he hadn't regretted not jumping into that river after them.

He didn't need any details about just how they had survived. He knew that it wouldn't have been easy and that they would have had to adapt, doing things which ordinarily they never would have simply to stay alive. There were visible scars on her body, ones which spoke of the hardship that she had been forced to endure. There were age lines already appearing around her eyes. Yet for all that, she was still beautiful to him. Cautiously, she approached placing her hands on top of his.

"We're going to be alright." She assured him in a voice so pure that he actually believed it.  
"I hope so… Oh God-" Jeremy muttered looking down at her hands before examining one of them. "Your fingers..."  
"Frostbite." She replied pulling them away for a moment. "It's in the past now..."

In the past… Yes, he supposed that was the only way to keep on living. He'd grasped long ago that he couldn't go on living with his mind focusing solely on how things used to be but that he also had to be firmly rooted in the present. In the present, all that matter was that he had his wife and son back, hopefully his daughter wouldn't be too late in following. There were still some things that needed to be dealt with and tended to though. One especially which had been nagging at the back of his mind for quite some time now.

"Ulrich survived." Jeremy declared in a low voice.  
"Mostly..." His wife muttered thinking back to their mutual friend. "Without Yumi… He's not the same."  
"I can imagine..." Simply assuming that his wife was dead had been bad enough, actually witnessing her murder must have been unbearable. "Listen, Aelita… I'm just happy to see you again… If you want to be with Ulrich, then-"  
"No." She cut him short. "I don't know what that was but it wasn't- I love you."

Jeremy would have been lying if he didn't admit that he was a little relieved – a fact he wouldn't mention to his wife of course. Six years was a long time to be separated by any standards especially when as far as he knew, they had both presumed their spouse to be dead. It was a shame that their old friend would not have the same luck. The blonde genius let out a deep sigh as he thought about everything that they had lost. Things were never supposed to have turned out like this. They were meant to win...

They chatted for a moment, simply catching up. It had been so long since they had last sat like this. Hand in hand, it almost felt like the good old days. Aelita didn't like talking about her time in the wilderness. He grasped that quickly. If he asked, she would reply in a short sentence but say no more than she had to. He understood that it hadn't been easy and decided that that was probably all he wanted to know. He had less to hide. He'd been lucky and had been picked up by the others without wondering for too long. Their life hadn't been easy but it had been far more comfortable than anything that she'd been forced to endure.

"What about Yumi?" Aelita asked eventually in a quiet voice.  
"She was something new…" Jeremy muttered thinking back to what the autopsy with Laura had shown them. "The body itself was human – X.A.N.A even thought to include that nasty wound to fool us – but inside her brain we found a microchip. We were decoding it just before I came here."  
"You should probably get back there..."  
"No." Jeremy shook his head causing his wife to look up at him a little surprised. "My place is here, with you, with Chip..."

Aelita nodded briefly. His answer suited her although she would never say so openly. She closed her eyes, resting her head on his shoulder. Hesitating slightly, he slipped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her a little closer. It had been a long time since he'd had that privilege. Jeremy wasn't too clear if his wife was asleep or simply resting. Quite often she'd close her eyes and appear to be asleep but in reality was simply thinking about things in her own way. He certainly wasn't about to complain.

It was half six by the time that the door swung open. They'd chatted a little, both gotten up and walked around the room to stretch their legs but otherwise hadn't left their son in his hour of need. All the boy's parents wanted him to do was wake up and say that he was alright. Sadly, he'd done neither… They'd had no visit since Odd and William had decided to give them some space and hadn't been expecting any.

So when Ulrich Stern stumbled in being supported by two teens, they both leaped to their feet. He raised a hand indicating that he was alright which where their old friend was concerned probably meant that he was two steps away from collapsing. Their attention was quickly focused on both Kai and Marie. They were in quite a state with dried blood on their clothes and looked as if they'd just been through the wars but they were very much alive. Behind them came Yolonda and Sissi, both eager to ensure that their new patients were tended to properly.

"I'm fine..." Ulrich hissed in exasperation as he was guided over to a chair. "I've had much worse. Deal with the kids."

Only Kai was still with his father. Marie had made a B-line for her family. She rushed into her mother's arms and held her so tightly the pink haired woman had to gasp for breath in order to inform her eldest that she risked strangling her. It was only then that she made out the sobs coming from the child. Aelita wasn't a fool and she definitely knew her daughter well enough to know that being asked to abandon her mother, brother and the man who had watched over them these past six years would have torn her apart.

"I thought you'd die…" The child sobbed.  
"Oh, I'm not going anywhere." Aelita promised her daughter holding her a little closer.  
"Chip..."  
"Is going to be fine." The child's mother confirmed.

After a few more tears and a little longer in a warm and caring embrace the likes of which the young teen had feared she'd never feel again, she eventually broke away. Her eyes drifted over to her father. The man had chosen to keep his distance. He didn't want to be a stranger to his daughter but neither did he want to intrude on her time with her mother. Aelita was better suited for dealing with Marie when she was in such a state. As such, he felt somewhat uneasy when the kid looked at him.

She had lived almost half of her life without really knowing him. They had both changed. She'd grown up, not entirely but she certainly wasn't the same 7 year old he'd known and who he'd seen fall in the waters. Yet despite all that, she still came forwards – a little unsteadily - to give him a hug. It took him a while to return the gesture as he was still a little shaken.

His attention wondered briefly over to Kai who as far as he could see seemed to have broken his nose and was being tended to by the former Kadic nurse. Although exhausted, he was still conscious. Jeremy was willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt and assume that if he hadn't actually said that he needed help, then he was probably alright.

"Ten miles." Ulrich muttered through clenched teeth. "They made it ten miles before I caught up!"  
"You told us to run..." Kai winced as Dorothy carefully cleaned some of the blood off his face.

Aelita just smiled, placing a hand on her daughter's shoulder. They'd done well. It was a sad truth that Yumi was dead once more and they'd lost Patrick. She knew that their deaths would hurt later, once the relief of finding their loved ones alive had worn off. For the time being however, she would take advantage of the time that they had together. It was time to take advantage of this moment's peace-

The door swung open suddenly and Laura rushed in. She looked around both confused and panicked before turning to the blonde man.

"It's okay Laura." Jeremy declared. "I'll be back in a few minutes."  
"No. You don't understand." The fear and urgency in her voice was unmistakable. "There's a security breach. If we don't move now, everyone's dead."


	20. Chapter 20

Most of the village had assembled in the church which had become the go-to meeting hall. The message that something was seriously wrong had spread like wildfire through the population causing them to gather here. There was an unmistakable panic in the voices as they chattered. From what William could pick up from his place next to his family, nobody was too clear just what was going on. They knew it was bad. They knew it was potentially life threatening but that was about it.

He was still more in the dark than he would have liked to be himself. Once Laura had burst in, she's spat out some technical jargon which only Jeremy and Aelita seemed to be capable of understanding. They had instantly rushed off to the lab, even reluctantly abandoning Chip, even if Kai and Marie had promised to stay with him. He had caught the part about them all dying if nothing was done though and it was hard to keep a straight and calm face with that knowledge in mind.

His blue eyes drifted over to Sissi as she sat next to him, there was fear and concern behind her eyes although like him she made an effort to hide it for the greater good of all those gathered there with them.

"Damn it. What's taking Jeremy so long?" Came the grumble of Ulrich Stern from the seats behind him.  
"I imagine he's just trying to get all the facts." Odd replied trying to calm his friend's nerves somewhat. "You know how thorough he likes to be, especially after the last scare."  
"What's there to worry about?" Ulrich continued to mutter, growing increasingly uneasy. "If X.A.N.A's coming then we'd better high tail it out of here before he catches us."  
"Will you keep it down!" Sissi hissed giving him a cold glare. "And quit fidgeting or else you'll tare out those stitches."

William couldn't quite believe that his old friend was backing down in front of Sissi. Usually, he would ensure that he had the last word in an argument. The fact that he simply lowered his head and rested it against his folded arms told the dark haired man just how much he'd changed. Ulrich wasn't afraid so much as knew what would happen if they were caught and years in the wilds had made him a little jumpy. Whilst it was easy enough to run when you were alone or traveling in a small group, if an evacuation was called for here, things would be a thousand times more difficult. God, he prayed it wouldn't come to that.

The crowd drew quiet as finally Jeremy, Aelita and Laura appeared on the stage. They had no generals or commanders, the people they turned were their best and brightest. None of the children were there. They were being looked after by some of the townspeople who were busy assuring them that this was simply a drill. Although judging by the look on Jeremy's face it was painfully clear that this was no practice run or mistake. There was a very real danger and it was likely headed straight there way. Everyone gathered there of course would pick up on that but they remained quiet none-the-less perhaps trying to fool themselves a little bit longer as they waited for one of the three geniuses to speak out:

"I'll make this brief." Jeremy declared speaking loudly so that they would all hear. "X.A.N.A is on his way and we're going to have to evacuate within the next 24 hours if we don't want to get caught."

Predictably, that single statement caused all Hell to break lose inside the church hall. Panic spread quickly as the chattering became louder and louder with everyone being forced to shout in order to be heard over the rest of the crowd. Despite Jeremy's desperate pleas, they showed no signs of quieting down to hear the rest of his message. They'd caught the part about the death coming there way because that was largely all that X.A.N.A was; an unstoppable storm which left only devastation in its wake.

William turned to Sissi, taking her hand in his and holding on tightly. He knew that evacuation was a last resort. There were too many risks. Too many uncertainties. Where would they go? How would they travel once the fuel ran out? How would they avoid X.A.N.A? What would happen when their supplies ran out? Not everyone could survive in the wilds. If they wondered for too long, some of them, perhaps the majority would die.

After a couple of minutes confusion and panic, Odd in exasperation jumped onto the stage and grabbed the microphone from Jeremy's hands and screamed loudly into it:

"Everyone shut up and let Einstein finish!" Somehow, instant silence.  
"Thank you Odd." Jeremy gave him a grateful nod before taking the microphone back.  
"How did they find us?" Asked someone from the crowd. "You said this place was safe!"  
"It was." Jeremy clarified before letting out a sigh. "Yumi Ishiyama was a X.A.N.A sleeper agent. Although she was flesh and blood, X.A.N.A had installed a program within her mind to activate as soon as the Lyoko warriors were reunited. Now that we're together, the program started, broadcasting our position to X.A.N.A and causing her to attempt to kill us."  
"How do we know there aren't more of them?" Came a man's voice from somewhere within the church.  
"We've been working on a new scanner." This time it was Laura who took center stage. "One which will pick up on the technology X.A.N.A uses. We scanned all of you as you came in. We're all clean."

There was a murmur of relief from the church. William himself could only let out a sigh. It was far from perfect but at least they didn't have to keep on wondering about potential traitors in their mist. If nothing else, it would prevent mass panic and hysteria which could otherwise easily have torn them apart from within. Given the current state of emergency, trust was essential otherwise they would all end up separating and fighting, making them easy targets for X.A.N.A.

"Is there nothing that can be done?" Asked yet another person from the crowd.  
"Yeah!" A woman agreed with them. "Can't we fight back? How's that virus of yours coming?"  
"It's finished."

The announcement caused everyone to fall silent. They had all know about Jeremy's attempts to create a virus to destroy X.A.N.A – how else could you defeat an evil A.I.? - but none of them had been aware that he'd actually finished his work. He spent hours locked away in that laboratory 'working' and whilst it was true that he did come up with many useful gadgets and gizmos to help elsewhere; they had all naturally presumed that he would mainly be working on the fabled weapon with which to destroy their enemy and reclaim Earth.

The chatter was excited this time. They could do it! They could stop X.A.N.A! Now that they had a weapon, it was possible, right? Those who knew Jeremy best remained silent however as they knew him well enough to know that if he hadn't mentioned this 'tiny' detail sooner, then it meant that there was a snag, a big one. They waited with their hearts in there mouth to hear just what it was.

"I need to talk to the other warriors alone." Jeremy declared before turning to Laura. "Can you handle the others and debrief them with the emergency protocol?"  
"Of course." She nodded as a reply.

Jeremy gave the signal for the rest of the Lyoko warriors to come with him to a room at the back of the church. Originally, the priest would have stood here preparing his sermons, now it served as a practical secret meeting room. William entered with a somewhat heavy feeling near his heart. For some reason, he knew that they were about to be told something terrible and there was a part of him which just wanted to run. Duty and the knowledge that their lives probably depended on what was about to happen – whatever that might be – forced him to continue on his way.

Ulrich was the last one in. He walked slowly, with his head hanging low and his hands in his pockets. The former samurai closed the door behind him before turning to the others.

"So, Jeremy, when were you going to tell us that you'd finished the virus?" Odd asked, tapping his foot to simulate impatience.  
"I needed Aelita to administer it. I didn't want to get people's hopes up." The genius continued unperturbed. "We're going to need to go to Lyoko."

Ah. That would be just a slight hiccup. Just a moderate one mind considering that Paris, where the supercomputer was located was absolutely swarming with X.A.N.A's monsters. No humans had been there in ten years. There had been attempts to reclaim the city; ones with armies and tanks and stealthier ones too. All of which had failed of course. The factory was forever out of range it would seem. Even if they did somehow manage to get there, Jeremy would be killed as soon as he sat down in his chair and it was unlikely they would be able to put one foot inside the scanners before meeting the same fate.

Asides from that, it was perfectly doable.

"Okay. So what part of this plan doesn't involve suicide?" William asked eventually seeing that pretty much everyone was having the same thought.  
"The whole plan." Jeremy replied in a low and grave voice. "The virus is in two parts. One actively kills X.A.N.A, the one we need Lyoko for but the first part will sever his connection to Earth. His army will be useless."  
"Why didn't you say so?" Odd asked tapping the genius on the shoulder.

Jeremy didn't respond. Instead he simply removed his glasses and cleaned the rim using his jumper. He couldn't bring himself to look any of them in the eye; a sure fire sign that things were a great deal more complicated than they had originally thought. The smile vanished from Odd's face as the realization settled in. Nothing was said, nothing was exchanged only silence. Nobody dared ask any further as fear of what his reply would be prevented them from doing so.

"I'll do it." Ulrich spoke out suddenly in a voice loud and firm enough to leave no doubt in his resolve.  
"What?" Jeremy raised an eyebrow somewhat confused.  
"You need someone to die for you, a Lyoko warrior, I volunteer."

He was only speaking the words which they all knew one of them would have to utter sooner or later. As a general rule with Jeremy, whenever he said that something was required of them and yet seemed reluctant to tell them what or to go into any detail about it, it meant that whatever he was about to ask them was dangerous and he couldn't guarantee their safety. Considering the current state of affairs, it was a fair bet that this latest mission would only end in a fatality for whoever volunteered.

In a way, Ulrich offering himself up as a sacrifice didn't even come as much of a surprise. Still, those words sent a shiver of dread down his friends' spines.

"Ulrich…" Odd began hesitating as he tried to think of what to say. "You have a family..."  
"We all do." The Lyoko warrior replied. "Kai's the oldest of our children. He can cope by himself. You all have younger and larger families. Besides, I don't have any battle armor. I'm the logical choice."  
"It's not a certainty that you'll-" He paused, unable to finish his sentence. "You might-"  
"What do I have to do?" The Lyoko warrior cut in, not needing or wanting to hear more.

Jeremy nodded slowly, appreciating his friend's point. They had very little time. Hours, if that. With all of his enemies gathered in one place for the first time in a decade, now was the time for him to strike and they could be sure that when he finally did strike, he would do so with such force that he would wipe them out definitively. There was still a lot to do and many preparations to be made before then. The longer they spent debating or lamenting the sacrifices that they were going to have to make the bigger the advantage X.A.N.A would have.

"We need to take out X.A.N.A's connection to the our world, specifically to his armies. I've designed a virus which should do just that." He let out a sigh. "The problem is administering it."  
"That's where you need me." Ulrich guessed speaking in a quiet voice.  
"Yes and you're not going to like it." Ulrich simply shrugged as a response to that statement. "It involves a Trojan horse."  
"What do you mean?" Odd asked this time, growing curious.  
"The only way to get the virus into X.A.N.A, is if he takes it himself." The genius clarfied readjusting his glasses slightly.  
"And Ulrich does that how?" William pried, eager to get to the point.  
"The schphozoa."

The reply caused them all to exchange concerned looks. William and Aelita both knew first hand how terrifying a creature it could be and their friends who had only ever seen the monster and never actually been on the receiving end of its tentacles were also wary of it. A creature which could enter your mind, steal your memory and/or install X.A.N.A's orders and control in your own mind was singularly spine chilling. It was bad enough on Lyoko, the thought of having to go through it voluntarily in the real world struck all of them as particularly horrific.

After a few moments, Ulrich regained his calm composure. Straightening himself with a solemn resolve as if this was simply any other task he would be asked to do.

"How will that-?"  
"I'll implant a virus in your digital memory, when X.A.N.A picks that up… Boom!" Jeremy paused for a moment, looking away. "Ulrich… I can't guarantee that X.A.N.A won't kill you on site. Even if the schphozoa doesn't take all your memory, you might still suffer brain damage. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Ulrich let out a sigh and turned away for a moment. Perhaps the realization of what he was going to have to do and what that would mean for him. He'd volunteered without knowing what he was signing himself up for. Now, it was possible that he was having second thoughts. None of them would have blamed him. After all, he had a life and a family the same as everyone else. That must have meant something to him. After a few moments, he turned back. His eyes were different, colder, more ruthless.

Aelita recognized the look behind those dark eyes. She let out a sigh, realizing that the friend who for a little while had returned to her had once more left, leaving room for his grimmer and more fatalistic counter part from a world where the love of his life had died. There would be no more smiles but she didn't doubt that he would be capable of sacrificing himself for the cause. Maybe, this was the only way that Ulrich could bring himself to do what had to be done.

"Why ask?" The Lyoko warrior questioned raising an eyebrow. "There's no choice. Now lets hurry up and do this thing."

Nobody argued. There were some sorry looks, full of regret and pain but no words exchanged. With a nod, they returned to the church to find it already mostly empty. There were a few people chatting, attending to the evacuation no doubt. Laura was waiting for them, the urgency and tension of the situation only too obvious to see on her features. She came over to them, doubtlessly eager to hear what decision had been made when it came to the virus and more importantly who would be the one to deliver it.

"Everyone's working." She informed them before her voice trailed off as her eyes wondered over the Lyoko warriors. "Have you-"  
"Ulrich volunteered." Jeremy turned to face his friend who simply nodded. "Aelita, I'm going to need your assistance. Odd, William you guys can help with the evacuation."  
"Don't tell Kai, until it's done." Ulrich requested although the tone in his voice let them know it was more of an order.

They nodded before rushing off. Ulrich followed the three geniuses. Outside, the city was a rush with people. Everyone was running around, not in panic, not quite but the sense of urgency was impossible to ignore. They each had their own tasks and jobs to attend to that was the only thing preventing true terror from settling in. If they wanted to avoid anarchy, everyone would have to be kept busy. It was when the mind was idle that it would recognize the true gravity of the situation and the fact that if nothing changed quickly, they would all die.

They were gathering supplies, food and water… Crates full of animals were being loaded onto the back of trucks whilst others emptied the infirmary of its contents. Could they be ready to leave within 24 hours? Ulrich didn't know. Back at the camp, they hadn't had so many supplies, not so much to carry but then there hadn't been as many of them and he knew that the wilderness wouldn't supply enough for such a large group. They'd struggled to survive when it had been just the five of them.

He followed them into the laboratory. Through, into another room he hadn't seen before. He stopped dead instantly as he found himself faced with dozens of computers screens and wires running literally everywhere. He struggled not to trip over them as he walked slowly forwards, his gaze fixed on the single massive tower before him. The sight of it filled him with a strange nostalgia he hadn't imagined that he would feel as he found himself thinking back to the first time his thirteen year old self had ever laid eyes upon such a sight.

"A scanner, here?" He asked turning to Jeremy.  
"It took us three years to scavenge the parts to build one." He replied sitting down by one of the many screens and beginning to tap things in. "Aelita, you're going to have to go with Ulrich to help with transferring the virus."  
"Right..." She hesitated the same as him as they both looked at the device which would take them to the virtual world.

A smile made its way onto Jeremy's face as he allowed himself a few seconds leisure which he couldn't really afford in order to watch his two old friends as they starred in awe at the machine. It had brought back many memories for him as well. He'd never gone to Lyoko – well, once but that was an experience he would much rather forget – but had still been a part of the gang. That insane virtual world had been their lives, it had brought them together… People didn't understand why he thought back to those days so fondly, to them Lyoko only meant trouble and death… They hadn't been there to witness the warriors, all they'd seen was X.A.N.A.

A look from Laura reminded him of everything that was at stake. The success and failure of their entire mission depended on minutes, potentially seconds and with it, he had no doubt that the future of humanity also hung in the balance.

"We need to go." Jeremy informed his two friends. "Which one of you wants to be first?"  
"I'll go first." Ulrich volunteered stepping forwards. "Make sure there are no monsters."  
"This isn't Lyoko." Laura informed him as he stepped into the scanner. "It's a separate virtual world, no X.A.N.A here."  
"Well that's a relief."

He didn't have enough time to add anything else before the doors closed. There was a brief moment of pause before the machine began firing up.

Scanner Ulrich. Transfer Ulrich. Virtualization.

It was an odd feeling to be virtualized, not one he actually enjoyed that much. He found himself instinctively closing his eyes to block out the bright light. For a second, he ceased to be and when he opened his eyes, he found himself faced with a dull expanse of nothingness. Suddenly aware that he was falling, he had just enough time to catch himself. Why they couldn't be sent to there on ground level? He'd forgotten how cold the digital world felt, how dead… There was no wind, no smell and here, right now, no sound…

This place didn't look a thing like Lyoko. Sure, the virtual world had always been a little minimalistic as far as its landscapes were concerned but this was taking things to a whole new level of nothingness. 'Blank' was the only word which could describe this place that he found himself in. Everything was a dull gray, there was only a few yards of ground before it simply gave way to the digital sea and its endless expanse. What a grim and lifeless place… It was strange but he had rather been hoping to find himself faced with a more familiar world.

"Different, isn't it?" Came Aelita's voice from behind him.  
"Yes. I forgot, how… Unreal this place feels." He couldn't think of any better word to describe it. "What now?"  
"We need to get you in a tower." She explained to him her eyes fixing the distance.  
"Where is it?" He asked unable to see how such a limited digital world could hide one.  
"Look behind you genius!" Came Jeremy's voice from seemingly everywhere. "Honestly, how did you guys survive in the wilds again?"

It was with a mixture of shock and embarrassment that he turned around to see the tower. It was something of a relief to see it without a red aura indicating X.A.N.A's presence. Standing in its shadow made him feel small, especially when he knew what sort of a fate awaited him inside. There was something ominous about them and for a moment, he found himself powerless but to stare at it.

Aelita took a few steps forwards, shaking him out of his stupor and to follow her. She walked slowly over to the tower, placing a hand on it as if to communicate somehow. Perhaps, despite all the years that she had spent on Earth she still felt a connection to the virtual world which none of them could understand. She spent a few seconds lost in her own thoughts before turning back to him. He gave her a slight nod telling her that he was ready – well, as ready as he was ever going to be. She smiled softly before disappearing inside. Ulrich lingered only a moment before following her.

She was on the top platform, already dealing with whatever programs Jeremy had to run. He kept his distance, watching, unable understand any of the computer gibberish anyway. For some reason, his son suddenly occurred to him, by now the boy would almost certainly know that something was up…

"Ulrich?" It was Jeremy's voice awakening him from his thoughts.  
"Mm?"  
"You ready?" He asked his old friend."  
"Yes..." He would have liked to sound more confident, more sure of himself… "What do I have to do?"  
"Just place your hand on the console."

Aelita's voice was soft and inviting. Strange given what she was instructing him to do. He took a few steps towards the digital screen. Eyes fixed upon it and unable to look away. To him, it was a stream of nonsense. Although one which theoretically would allow them to defeat their oldest nemesis once and for all. He extended his hand, ready to do what she asked and yet found himself hesitating for some reason which he couldn't quite grasp for a moment.

It took him a moment to realize that he was afraid. As much as he would like to pretend that potentially sacrificing himself for the cause wasn't a daunting prospect and that he would do it easily, in reality it struck him with a strange form of terror that he had known many times in his youth when he had volunteered to hold back X.A.N.A. It was one thing to be willing to give up your life, another all together not to care about it. He found himself wondering if towards the end when Yumi had realized that she was going to die, whether she had been as scared as he was right now. She'd always seemed braver than him.

Aelita placed her hand on his shoulder. He looked back at her, giving her a grateful smile as he found himself reminded why he had agreed to this. He took a deep breath, which would have meant more were there any actual air here and without saying another word touched the screen. There was a slight tingling sensation which ran through his body, much like the feeling of having someone walk over his grave but that was it. After a few seconds, the screen disappeared. A little confused, he turned back to his friend.

"It's done..." She declared gravely.

Ulrich simply nodded. He didn't know what he'd been expecting. A column of light? Agony? He felt no different to how he had only a few moments ago and yet now apparently he had the key to defeating X.A.N.A locked up inside his mind. Before he knew what was going on, he found himself being devirtualized and brought back to Earth.

He had only a couple of minutes top on Lyoko and yet he practically collapsed as he exited the scanner. He'd forgotten just how much being virtualized took out of him and how weak legged it left you. More than once, he or one of his friend's had lost consciousness as a direct result of their antics on Lyoko. He managed to catch himself fortunately and found himself being supported by Jeremy who was standing next to the scanner whilst Laura tapped something into the computer, presumably preparing to bring Aelita back as well. Ulrich was quick to hop out, catching his breath as he did so.

"What now?" He asked the genius before him.  
"We're sending you to rendez-vous with some scavengers near Toulouse." He informed him his eyes flicking over his friend, visibly trying to ensure that he was alright.  
"Scavengers? Jeremy! Those guys are in league with X.A.N.A! You can't trust them." Ulrich declared somewhat appalled, he assumed that it was pretty common knowledge for survivors.  
"Yes but we need someone to hand you over to X.A.N.A." He explained quite calmly as if they had all the time in the world. "We sent them a message telling them that we were sending one of our best men with top secret information concerning how we were going to defeat X.A.N.A."  
"You're hoping they'll inform him." Ulrich guessed, the plan had merit. "But how can we be sure they won't just kill me anyway or X.A.N.A won't have them do the dirty work?"

Jeremy simply shook his head allowing his friend to understand that they couldn't be certain. This was one gigantic gamble where the fate of the world, more specifically of humanity was likely at stake. He could very easily be killed without even seeing so much as a tentacle of the schphozoa. They were putting some bait on a hook, X.A.N.A was a very smart fish and could quite easily take the bait and leave the hook. Unfortunately, Ulrich just so happened to be the bait.

"I- I wish there was another way..." The blonde man muttered to his old friend in a low voice, unable to raise his eyes to meet him.  
"It was never going to be easy." Ulrich replied not looking away. "For what it's worth, I'd rather go down fighting than lying down."  
"Well, that's good." Jeremy got to his feet and headed over to a corner of the room. When he came back, he was clutching a katana. "We took this from you. Here. Give them a good show."

Ulrich accepted his blade. It was one of the few things that he had left of his old life, asides memories and his son. The blade had been passed down through Yumi's family through generations. When he'd married her and had a child with her, Kai had become its next owner but the teen had never wielded the weapon. The Lyoko Samurai had always used the sword as it reminded him of his days in the virtual world as well as being a precious connection to his dead wife. Now, it might be coming to the last time he would be able to use it in combat.

"If I die. This belongs to Kai." He declared tearing his gaze away from the blade. "Make sure he gets it."  
"I will." Jeremy promised looking behind him as Aelita stepped out of the scanner.  
"It's rougher than the old ones used to be..." She complained, struggling to keep her balance.  
"It would be." Laura replied her voice calm and level given the circumstances. "It's make out of scrap. We try not to use it too much."  
"How long do I have?"  
"Why?"

Ulrich lowered his gaze, realizing that they wanted or more likely needed him to leave now or at least as soon as possible. There was no time for lingering. For a moment, he contemplated shrugging it off and saying that it didn't matter and that he would be willing to go right now. The memory of Yumi hung heavily in his mind however for a few moments as for some reason he found himself remembering those terrifying moments as she bled out and their sobbing child that he'd struggled to keep quiet.

It was wrong that Kai had lost his mother like that. He shouldn't lose his father in the same way.

"I want to say goodbye to my son." He declared in a low voice.  
"Five minutes. I'm sorry."

He nodded slowly in acceptance. Getting up without saying another world, he quickly headed outside painfully aware of how quickly five minutes could and would pass. The chances were with the commotion going on outside, he wouldn't be able to find the lad before he ran out of time anyhow. Still, he had to try.

Outside, people were still hurrying about with the evacuation in full swing. He would have to think both quickly and logically if he wanted to say 'goodbye'. Kai had been with the other children when the announcement had been made in the church. Children would be the first to be evacuated in such as situation along with those too old or otherwise unable to help. Unlike them however, the teen was able-bodied and strong so would likely be helping out in whatever ways he could. That wouldn't make finding him any easier.

Letting out a sigh, the father stepped out into the street, his eyes constantly darting around in search of a pair of familiar dark eyes. He toyed with the idea of asking some of the others if they knew where was but decided against disturbing them in their tasks. The whinny of some horses drew his attention. If he knew his son, then maybe… Sure enough, there was Kai helping to load some of the animals into a trailer. He turned as soon as he spotted Ulrich, quickly finishing his job before running over to him.

"Dad! X.A.N.A's coming!" No doubt the lad knew that he was aware of this already but felt the need to inform him none-the-less.  
"I know..." Ulrich replied somewhat monotonously as he tried to gather his thoughts.  
"You came to help?" There was some uncertainty in the teen's voice as he looked at his father.  
"Kai… There's a chance for us to kill X.A.N.A." His father eventually let out.  
"For real?!" Excitement took over. "How?"  
"No time to explain." He shook his head negatively. "I'm going to have to go away for a while."

It hurt to see the boy's eyes widen with such realization and pain. Slowly, his gaze fell upon his father's sword. There was no room for doubt and Ulrich didn't want there to be. He had decided to be brutally honest to his son seeing as they may very well be saying 'farewell' right here and right now. He didn't want there to be any misunderstands between them or any possibility of him being accused of breaking a promise. Still, there shouldn't be so much pain behind Kai's eyes and it was tempting thing to do, to lie and tell him everything would be alright. He wouldn't though, even if it hurt both of them.

"No..." Kai muttered.  
"I can't guarantee I'll make it back alive." He continued not waiting until his son continued.  
"No!" This time it was anger speaking, denial. "You can't leave me like this!"  
"Kai-" Ulrich started but found his son's voice to be louder than his own.  
"All this time, it's been me and you! Even after mom died, you were always there!" The teen continued on the verge of tears. "You have always been there for me!"

Ulrich let out a sigh. He hadn't expected Kai to be quiet or to take it well – honestly if the boy had been happy about his departing on a potential suicide mission he would have been asking himself some questions – but it was rare to see him so emotional. He was by no means the best father in the world and admitted it being faced with such a situation was a little bewildering and daunting. If only Yumi was here, she would know what to do and be able to soothe their child's worries and fears in a matter of moments.

He wasn't quite so sensitive, the loss of his one true love had gotten rid of that. Still, he took a couple of steps forwards and placed a hand on his son's shoulder.

"Everything changes." He spoke as softly as he could. "I'll do all I can to avoid dying but I can't promise anything. You've got to be strong."  
"I'm tired of being strong..." The teen confessed looking away. "I- I just want everything to be normal."  
"And this is our chance." Ulrich told his son. "I'm sorry Kai but I'm not about to risk sacrificing both your future and the rest of humanity because we feel like being selfish. I'll do all I can little man but this might be goodbye."

The teen nodded slowly, understanding and realizing that there was no use arguing. Already, Ulrich could see Jeremy and Aelita waiting for him, he was almost out of time. One last smile, that was all he could really afford. To his surprise, Kai wrapped his arms around him and pulled him close for a hug. It took the father a couple of moments to get over the shock before gently returning the gesture. He only lingered for a few seconds but it was enough to remind him how much he would miss the lad should this be the last he ever saw of him.

He had to go. He left the boy there, barely aware if he was following or not as he slowly made his way over to his friends as they waited for him. They had prepared a vehicle for him with a map illustration the course he was supposed to take. Approaching slowly, he turned to the former Lyoko Warriors.

"So this is it." He muttered, unable to think what else to say.  
"Yeah." Came Odd's monosyllabic reply.  
"No but then we don't have a choice..."


End file.
